Everyone working at Hope Mission in Siam (modern-day Thailand) has a secret, a real reason for being there. And for most of them, it's not about God.
In
The Far Moist End of the Earth, a pastor, a nurse, a teacher, a housekeeper, and a native couple who work at a Christian mission grapple with their regrets, suppressed desires, and life challenges. The year is 1908.
Bonnie Jensen, a young widow from Boston, volunteers to work at the mission. She is in her early twenties, and her husband recently died. Her teaching work at the mission fulfills a bargain she made with God when she believes He answered her prayer to let her husband live past their first anniversary. That's what she tells herself.
When the mission's pastor, Rev. Jacob Jefferson, fetches Bonnie at the pier to take her to the mission, there is an immediate connection between them. But both guilt and regret from his past torment him.
The indigenous teenage housekeeper is torn between giving her parents grandchildren and mastering English to find an adventurous job.
The mission nurse hides her loneliness and a secret about her sexuality.
The handyman and cook are a married couple who seem happy, but an unbearable sacrifice festers between them.
Bonnie's presence at the mission forces the rest of the staff to face their fears, hopes, remorse, and resentments. One way or another, her presence pokes those specters to life, without her knowing it.
Over the course of two years, she, the pastor, and the staff no longer see themselves as members of different races, but as a family. At the end of her teaching commitment, Bonnie must decide to stay on at the mission or return home.
But a question haunts her. Rev. Jefferson once asked her: "Why do you think God sent you to me?"
Bonnie Jensen is a sensuous young widow, a teacher, a friend, a lover, and a reluctant catalyst. Does she stay on at the mission? Does she ever find the answer to Rev. Jefferson's question?
