Elmer Gantry is the story of a boastful and cynical high school athlete who abandons Law to pursue, accidentally, a career in Baptist ministry. He spirals into alcoholism, acting as an agent for a beautiful evangelist with whom he carries on an affair until her death in a fire. Gantry is directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of many good people before ultimately settling into power and money as a preacher in the Midwest. The novel is a satire of American religious practices.