A Gradual Backslide traces the steps of Joseph Bethel, a child born with a spiritual triptych imprinted on his soul. In one frame he stands at the altar beside a dark-haired volleyball player, in another he is a man who wins souls for God, and in the last he lives eternally in happiness. But as Joseph grows up, sin erodes the image, and he must use his own will to imagine another masterpiece. The novel starts in the early '80s then picks up in the late '90s in the Midwest, in a time when religious teenagers across the United States believed in the wisdom of advice books on how to court The One. A Gradual Backslide follows what happens as those promises disintegrate, examining the unsettled mind of someone whose prayers for what he thought was guaranteed go perpetually unanswered.