A group of doctors in a veteran's hospital must contend with their hopeless situation: too many patients and not enough beds. The main cause of their problems is bureaucratic belt-tightening by the hospital administrators. The doctors are determined to give the best service they can, even if that means defying the orders of management and performing unauthorized operations.

Ricky Brown (Ryan Kwanten) is a high school youth in Texas who knows nothing about the outside world for his was raised his entire life to follow the West Texas tradition of playing football on the gridiron. Ricky desperately tries to find a direction with his life as well as try to shake off the troubled memory of his older brother's recent death in order to avoid the pressure of him to play as his school's top star. Fleeing from the pressures of his small town as well as his mother (Karen Black), Ricky travels to New York City where he shacks up with his former mentor John Cross (Hill Harper), who is now a Catholic priest of a small church. Ricky also meets Vera (Natasha Lyonne) a free-spirited young woman who works as a diner waitress who he hopes to help him find direction. At the same time, Ricky also becomes acquainted with Rosie (Élodie Bouchez) a young Frenchwoman who has a "special relationship" with John that may have lasting consequences for John and Rosie.

The carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptations of demons, the guilt of making crosses for the Romans, pity for men and the world, and the constant call of God, sets out to find what God wills for Him. But as His mission nears fulfillment, He must face the greatest temptation; the normal life of a good man. Based, not on the Gospels, but on Nikos Kazantzakis' novel of the same name.