Buechner then recalls the return of his family to the United States following the outbreak of the Second World War, and his attendance at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and subsequently Princeton.

In the following chapters, Buechner recounts the beginning of his journey as an author, and the composition of his first published work, A Long Day's Dying (1950).

The final chapter charts the author's conversion experience, while attending the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, describing the effects of one particularly transformative sermon, delivered by George A. Buttrick:Jesus Christ refused the crown that Satan offered him in the wilderness, Buttrick said, but he is king nonetheless because again and again he is crowned in the heart of the people who believe in him.

[2]Buechner's opening observations concerning the significance of autobiography for both the theologian and the author represent a general theme common to all of his works.

The Washington Post Book World called it a "singularly graceful synthesis of memoir and theological explanation" and "entrancing."