In Oklahoma in the 1920s, Rubin Flood loses his job as a traveling salesman when the company goes bankrupt. This adds to his worries at home. His wife Cora is frigid because of trying to make ends meet. His teenage daughter Reenie is afraid of going out on dates, but eventually makes friends with a troubled Jewish boy Sammy Golden, and his son is a mama's boy. He finally storms out of the house when Cora falsely accuses him of having an affair with Mavis Pruitt.

A coroner's assistant, who is also a law student, gets involved in a strange case involving his girlfriend's place of employment (a hospital), prostitutes, a defrocked priest, and vampires.

Cast into a violent and bloody world of murder, Hereward, a novice monk, must deliver the Holy Gospel of Lindisfarne - a book of great beauty and power - to the safety of the Iona monastery, while being pursued by a Viking death squad hell- bent on its capture. On his way to the monastery, he meets a fierce and skilled swordsman who answers his prayers and dedicates his life to protecting Hereward while he delivers the book. In the midst of their journey, they are confronted by Vikings ready to kill in order to get what they want, leaving Hereward and his protector at their mercy.