Things couldn't have gotten much worse for America than in the end of 2001. And for Mitch Greene, staff writer at a supermarket tabloid, sightings of the Virgin Mary that begin deep in the heart of Texas spell big sales of newsprint.

No sooner do the sightings die off than Mitch learns of a man imitating the life of Jesus, and he begins a cross-country trek on the heels of this mysterious wanderer. Along the way, Mitch experiences America as he has never experienced it before and he begins to question some of his own long-standing beliefs. Nothing prepares him, however, for what eventually unfolds and the elaborate conspiracies in which he becomes entangled.

Equal parts satire and soul-searching, As It Was In The Beginning is a celebration of America in all its contradictory splendor.