Seventy years have passed since an army of religious zealots "destroyed" the Bin. Now, in the rubble of New Jerusalem -- the ruined city once called Washington--a young Christian Soldier named Sam has uncovered a prototype housing a single uploaded personality. The release of renegade geneticist Walter Tillman from his hundred-year prison leads Sam to an even more astonishing discovery: the Bin, with its billions of inhabitants--including Tillman's lost lover, Stephanie, who desires the freedom of death--still exists, unbeknownst to the mad messianic leader Gabriel and his Army of the Lord.

But soon Gabriel, too, will learn of the Bin's survival. And as doubts erode Sam's religious fervor, as Tillman strives to reunite with his love, and events on Earth and in virtual Heaven more rapidly toward a violent, inescapable conclusion, the destinies of disembodied and planet-bound souls alike will converge