Mark Twain famously said that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Fair enough. But he might have at least warned people like Whit of the accompanying dangers. At least for some circles, being more open-minded and well-rounded makes you a terrible fit for a world you once called home.

So it is with Whit, now a young adult, thrust into life in a different hemisphere. He has to work to find his balance in this new country, where his height and pale skin and American accent make him stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. Thanks to the welcome of Tía Luz and the direction of Tía Pilar, however, Whit soon finds his stride as an all-purpose employee at Operación Amor, a residential facility for troubled kids in the resort city of Trujillo, Peru. Father Guillermo, a priest at the nearby Cathedral, becomes his guide for both the spiritual and the romantic.

With a little goading from the priest, Whit enters into his first true love affair, a passionate romance with Luz’s daughter Mila. Even though his Puritanical upbringing continues to ping his conscience, his will is no match for the intense desire he feels for her. Before long, he has given himself over completely.

As is often the case when families are involved, things begin to unravel around Christmas. A missionary team from Covenant University brings their fundamentalism and savior complex to town, reflecting back to Whit the distance that now exists between him and his former religious tribe. Worse still, a fight with Mila leads to the revelation that she is, in fact, married—and to a notorious local gangster, no less. Despite his obligations to the children at OA and his need to be with Guillermo as the priest mourns the death of a former lover, Whit must flee the country or risk putting himself and his family in danger at the hands of Mila’s newly returned husband.

In the interlude that follows, Whit lands in Minneapolis—a mistake in the airline booking—with no place to go. Rabbi Sarah, the chaplain on duty at the airport, helps connect him to a place to stay. When he looks at himself in the mirror as he leaves he airport, he recognizes the face that stares back at him—not as his own, but as his father’s.