Recently retired from the priesthood, Terence Joseph Glasheen is starting over as a private citizen in the fabled Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal. At loose ends, Glasheen befriends his neighbour, Orenstein, a religious Jew, only to find himself pulled into the goings-on of the surrounding Orthodox Jewish community. Unlikely allies bound by their decency and keen insight, together Glasheen and Orenstein mediate, negotiate, and investigate an acrimonious divorce, the worthiness of a potential groom, and a possible case of child abuse, all while Glasheen learns what it is to be a man without the cloth.