A comic novel that tells the story of Ray Midge of Little Rock, whose wife has run away with her first husband, Ray's credit cards, and his car. Ray sets off to get his own back (especially his car). Along the way, he encounters an array of Portis' unique characters: inner-directed and undeflected innocents, with Ray the most calmly determined of them all.

As readers of Portis' earlier novels Norwood and True Grit know, obstacle are like catnip to a Portis hero. Ray—stoic, unheroic, a bit disenchanted—tends to make himself responsible for the welfare of anyone (or anything) who happens to get in his way.