Night of Light is a central document in Philip Jose Farmer's quest for a vital religious myth as potent as the biblical one, but lacking what Farmer views as the repressive puritanism the Bible has often inspired in Judeo-Christian religions. Part One of this novel portrays John Carmody's initial encounter with a matriarchal religion on the planet of Dante's Joy.

During the "night of light," the creatorgoddess, Mother Boonta, manifests her power. All humans who take the Chance by staying awake become what their subconscious desires dictate. (Thousands are driven insane; some find perfect happiness.) Carmody is a thoroughly repulsive master criminal and wife-killer who is taking the Chance in hopes of assassinating Yess, the Christ-like son of Mother Boonta. Instead, Carmody undergoes a cleansing and rebirth and becomes the father of Yess's next incarnation. In Part Two, he returns twenty-seven years later as Father John...