It pays conscious homage to ideas and themes originally explored with powerful effect in the novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by the Scottish novelist, essayist and poet James Hogg.

Set in present day Scotland, Robertson's story of a contemporary minister of the Church of Scotland, Gideon Mack, who essentially doubts the existence of God, and thus his entire vocation, involves a wide variety of themes including questions of philosophy, tragedy, and the nature of father and son relationships.

After scandalising and alienating his friends, the parish, and the Kirk at large, Gideon once again disappears, leaving his written account for posterity.

The novel explores the interplay of religion, faith, and wider culture, and the sense of alienation from, or absence of, God often evident in the modern world.

Gideon’s encounter with the Devil in some ways becomes the denouement of his life, finally providing him with a perspective from which to understand the world, and his place in it.