A jaded Black U.S. Army officer, angry and emotionally distant after multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, witnesses a horrific assault which leads to an impromptu decision with life-altering consequences.  

For Troy Williams, the U.S. Army officer, the one relationship that keeps him emotionally grounded, whether training stateside or fighting the Taliban in Kandahar, is his friendship with Sanchez, his battle buddy from basic training.

When Marc’s loyalty to Rome is questioned because of his sympathetic attitudes toward the local Jewish population, he is forced to make a choice: whether to follow legion orders or to listen to the itinerant Jewish rabbi who Theo calls the Teacher — a choice in which Theo's own life hangs in the balance.

A veteran Roman centurion stationed in 1st century CE Palestine finds sleep evasive, as flashbacks from the battlefield and his troubled childhood complicate his struggle to justify his personal moral code with the responsibilities of his command. 

For Marcus Septimius Valpergus, commander of a temporary outpost above the Sea of Galilee, two people lighten the daily tedium of bureaucratic paperwork and frustrating policy: an elderly Jewish merchant in Capernaum with whom he partners in local charity and his own younger Greek servant, Theo, who he meets by chance a decade earlier at a Syrian slave market.

Inspired by the Roman centurion and his servant who are both mentioned in two of the four Gospels (Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10) and the experience of U.S. troops who stood up against the practice of bacha bazi when stationed in Afghanistan, But Only Say The Word is a sweeping historical literary/upmarket drama that addresses toxic masculinity, emotional and sexual trauma, and spiritual healing, both in our #MeToo present and two millennia ago.