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It’s 1984 and Father Sam isn’t living in McGuffin Ridge to evangelize, assimilate indigenous people, build a church, or lead Bible lessons—although he gets asked about the Bible pretty often. He’s not one for steeples and stained glass.
Folks around this Appalachian village like Father Sam because he likes them. He’s just a good neighbor who wears a white collar and lives in a log cabin at the end of Main Street. He keeps bees, grows organic herbs, teaches Cherokee kids English, drinks coffee with the old sheriff, and favors the cherry pie at Mabelline’s Cafe.
Then, one day, his age-old trespasses catch up with him, and he must break the laws of man and of God to right the wrong he ran away from in the crazed days of 1960 when he was a stumbling, addicted seminarian.
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Top amateur boxer Li Chong’s training regimen has been augmented with PEDs, but he doesn’t know it. Li Chong’s manager has been tinkering with his prized amateur’s DNA for years. His plan is for Li Chong to make them both famous when he wins the prestigious United States Boxing Finals and goes on to capture the World Championships in Moscow. Li Chong storms into the big tournament as a blistering force of nature, unstoppable, until he gets knocked cold by John Bagley in the championship bout and his chemicalized brain is damaged irreparably.
John Bagley and Li Chong grew up together in San Francisco and together they had become two of the best amateurs in the country until gang life disrupted their lives four years prior to their deadly fight. Li Chong and John were known as the American Dream Brothers around the world. But after the United States Boxing Finals, boxing ended for them both and the American Dream Brothers were no more. John’s victory brought him a lifetime of despair. Thirty years later, they would both emerge from separate journeys of torment. They would grasp once again, if only for a moment, the brotherhood taken from them long ago.
Brother is driven by the clash and alliance of multicultural characters and ultimately punctuated by the indestructible brotherhood of an American named John Bagley and a Chinese immigrant named Li Chong.