Father Hardstep Rivers attempst to save Jennie, a young prostitute from a fate worse than death. Jennie doesn’t know that her pimp Ric (George Chakiris) is really her father, or that her mother Sara (Bibi Besch) is doing time in the pen. Hardstep tries to affect a miracle by having the former lovers meet at the church altar. He gets Sara out of the pen on a pass, then watches as the woman implores Ric to free their daughter from sexual bondage. Even the resident wino could have seen what was coming. Not Hardstep. Eric refuses the mother’s request, and she murders him in cold blood with a knife.

Father Hardstep loses his cool when an old con man shows up and tells the orphans he’s the priest's real father.

Sister Daisy is brutally attacked and raped and subsequently discovers she is pregnant, and it is now Father Hardstep's difficult work to support her in the agonizing decision whether to keep the baby.

Father Hardstep deals with a group of women who threaten to leave their husbands blaming a corner bar where the men are accused of not only drinking too much but losing their money gambling.

Town’ Father Hardstep has his hands full when Kathy, former Hell Town resident, marries David, son of Beverly Hills socialites. Problems arise when Kathy's father, Phil, out on leave from jail, wants to skip out to settle an old score, and David's father is an embarrassment with his snobbish behavior.

Father Hardstep saves a young girl, Meg, from a life on the Sets and pornography films, only to discover she is further harassed by a faceless corporation terorizing tenants in her newfound home and life.