Set in the bucolic town of Angie, Louisiana, The Lord's Acre tells the story of Eli Woodbine, a young boy who watches helplessly as his fundamentalist parents give in to their increasing sense of desperation and paranoia, living in a world where they can no longer see any hope or reason for existing.
When the family is at their absolute lowest, they come across a local, charismatic church leader, in whom they quickly place all of their faith. Yet this man--known to them only as "Father"--is unlike anyone they have ever encountered before. But one day, and with no explanation save for a mysterious gift given to Eli, Father disappears, leaving everything behind him in ruin.
Eli and his parents attempt to pick up the pieces, however, as they try to find answers to their new predicament. But their efforts go awry when Eli breaks into an abandoned grocery store one night in order to steal food for his family. He is arrested and taken to jail, where, to his surprise, he is finally able to discover the hope he had always been so desperate to find.