A revisionist history of the life of Jesus Christ which covers an eighteen year period from childhood to early adulthood and depicts the Messiah as a mortal rather than as the son of God. Jesus (or Jeoshua here) is brought up in Galilee, studies Judaism and, witnessing the brutality of the Romans, begins to question the ways of man. He leaves his village to experience the world, and ends up taken in by the Essenes. Clashing with them on spiritual issues, he returns home and reencounters Jochannan (later to become John the Baptist).