Cult leader Reverend Jim Jones' (Boothe) life is chronicled from his days as an idealistic 1960's activist who runs scams and spends his nights as a womanizer to a self-proclaimed modern day Messiah. Jim Jones styIed himself after 1930's religious leader Father Divine, pIayed in flashbacks by James EarI Jones. The 1978 mass suicide of 913 followers at the settlement on Jonestown, Guyana in South America is staged in a chilling documentary style of events. Powers Boothe's dynamic performance as the charismatic self-styIed preacher won him the Emmy Award as outstanding actor.