Exploring themes of love, racism and religion in post-war, small-town America, Jack is an examination of faith and pastoralism set in the community of Gilead. Marilynne Robinson returns to the world of Gilead with Jack. Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the loved and grieved-over prodigal son of a Presbyterian minister in Gilead, Iowa, a drunkard and a ne'er-do-well. In segregated St. Louis sometime after World War II, Jack falls in love with Della Miles, an African-American high school teacher, also a preacher's child, with a discriminating mind, a generous spirit and an independent will.