Valerie tells the story of an innocent Catholic girl, a recent graduate of St. Catherine Academy, an all-girls high school, under the Sisters of Mercy from Providence, Rhode Island. Valerie was hired by Francis A. Cull, the headmaster of St. John's College, a prestigious secondary school for boys where American Jesuits offer the best academic education and Catholic indoctrination in Belize, Central America, under the British. After a trip to Bermudian Landing with him, one of his mission stations, the priest fell madly in love with Valerie. Valerie never knew she was peaking the priest's interest. Though she fought it, Valerie finally succumbed to the relentless romantic advances of her boss. They fell deeply in love. Valerie reveals the most dramatic, soul-stirring decision of their lives: to elope. Once setting out on their journey, they were pursued under the ominous cloud excommunication through formidable obstacles of age, culture, race, religion, and survival, as by Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven," but through true love and with the help of their "Pursuer," the two lovers attained a crowning triumph of love and faith.