In which the ambitious Reverend Elmer Gantry ingeniously blends lively entertainment and spirited moralising to draw vast crowds and curry favour with the local press, while manoeuvring ecclesiastical and societal figures to bolster his church’s influence and coffers. Amidst this burgeoning prominence, he initiates a crusading committee and a vitriolic campaign against the city’s concealed vices, revealing the uneasy alliances and polite rivalries that define the town’s religious and moral landscape.