Gospel Hill is about haunted men, the former sheriff of the southern town dealing with past sins, and the former civil rights worker withdrawn since the martyrdom of his brother thirty years before. Their final confrontation comes when a corporation descends on the town, echoing a struggle thirty years old.
Stig Sandström is just an alias for the real Sovjet-spy and renegade Stig Bergling, who defected in 1987 and successfully ran from the secret service watch.