Book excerpt: Sean grew up a privileged child nurtured in the womb of his Southern California fundamentalist church. He dreamed of becoming a missionary pilot and hoped Kathleen Wilberforce will share his dream. But he loses Kathleen to a rival, then watches his dream crash like a toy airplane when he washes out of the Torrey Bible Institute mission aviation program (Chicago). Flailing about with disappointments and unanswered prayers, he performs a blasphemous ritual to convince himself that he has become an atheist. Kathleen unexpectedly shows up at the Institute but carries a dark secret that shames her and isolates her from Sean. Meanwhile, Sean finds that being a good atheist is harder than he thought. In his anguish, he seeks a path back to aviation, back to Kathleen, and back to God.