The Bishop of Lindchester is happily married with four daughters. But does he have a secret? Archdeacon Matt is inclined to think not. That said, it's obvious to him that Bishop Paul's got a pretty big bee in his mitre about the brilliant but troubled Freddie May . . . Welcome to the fictional Diocese of Lindchester, where you will be taken (dear reader) on a yearlong romp in the company of bishops, priests and lay people. Prepare yourself for a bumpy and hilarious ride from the rarefied heights of the Cathedral Close down to the coalface of ordinary urban and rural parishes. Acts and Omissions reveals the Church of England in all its mess and glory. It is a world shot through with grace, but one where even the best intentioned err and stray. And occasionally do those things which they ought not to have done . . .

Who will be the next bishop of Lindchester? That's what everyone's been asking since bishop Paul Henderson resigned in haste and a whiff of scandal. Unseen Things Above rejoins our friends in the diocese as they address themselves to the labyrinthine process of appointing his replacement. When they aren't arguing about love and marriage, that is. Should Jane renounce her feminist orthodoxy and wed the manly archdeacon? Could Father Ed defy the House of Bishops and marry Neil? And how many hearts will start atrembling when the gorgeous but volatile Freddie May returns to the Cathedral Close? Come, dear reader, and clamber once again onto the liturgical rollercoaster. Travel from Easter to Advent with bishops, archbishops, and all the company of Lindchester. Hang on to your hat as you're whirled through ups and downs and twists of plot. There are unseen things above, all right. But if you manage to open your eyes, the view from the top is glorious.

Annie Brown, wrestling with doubts about her faith and a biological clock the size of Big Ben, escapes the stifling kindness of her fellow ordinands and the stifled yelps of her sexuality by writing a raunchy novel. Yet Annie can no more control her characters than she could a congregation. Outrageous Isabella and butter-wouldn't-melt Barney hurtle unbidden into difficult situations that lead Annie inexorably back to her own repressed upbringing and present predicament. Some of their liberation rubs off on her too, and when she meets brusque outsider Will, Annie plunges into passion as uninhibitedly as Isabella. But Annie's vocation, like her libido, won't lie down, and she despairs of finding a happy ending to either of her stories . . .

Parson's daughter Mara Johns arrives as a postgraduate student at a great northern cathedral city. Antagonistic to the church and fiercely independent, she repels all friendly overtures and seeks spiritual answers in her theological research. But when her past involvement in an extreme sect resurfaces, she finds her quest won't stay academic. Nor can she hold out against her persistent would-be friends. Gradually she unbends and laughs with Maddy and May; locks horns with the insufferable 'polecat'—and finds herself torn between the attentions of two suitors. But they are both ordinands, and she's vowed she'll never marry a vicar.