In every moment, we choose between Heaven and Hell...

The good people of Battle Hill are getting ready to put on a play by the renowned playwright, Peter Stanhope. As the rehearsals continue and the date of the premier draws closer, many things that are hidden are revealed.

Among them is the fact that nearly every choice presents us with both an invitation and a temptation. Pauline Anstruther is invited to face her deepest fear, and to dare to believe that she can offer succor and support to a long-dead relative at the moment of his greatest need. Lawrence Wentworth is tempted to forsake the company of real (and therefore difficult) people and retreat into illusion and isolation. To choose connection and community is to choose Heaven, to reject it is to descend into Hell...

Descent into Hell is among the most subtle and profound of Williams' novels. In it, he most fully presents his theology of substituted love.