"This Child Will" highlights the odyssey of a Clairvoyant, under the constant influence of the spirit to which he plays host.  The driving force of this story is the Humanitarian goal of the spirit, Maggie, an American Slave in life and a crusader for humanity in her spiritual form. The first portion of the novel the mother of clairvoyant child experiences the rape that results in the clairvoyants conception.  In an act of desperation she establishes a relationship with a one night fling Gary Burden in order to eventually dupe him into marriage being convinced that he is the father of the child. It's during the first few years of the child, Donovon's, life when he experiences visions of the spirit, Maggie, and is led into various confrontations with militants and others whom Maggie  had chosen as tools for her mission. The novel is filled with several twists involving the military group called Fishers of Men and the unwritting clash with the spirits as well as twists involving the clash between Maggie and an antagonistic spirit, Fairsee, Maggie's son.