Mourning the loss of his wife, and in a fit of rage and grief, an aged fisherman attacks his son and flees into the neighboring woods. Soon accompanied by a teenage waif, the fisherman regales the girl with tales of his beloved, his "Parmacheene Belle;" muses on the modernizing world; and forges on his quixotic quest to reach his late wife's native coast. Joanna Scott's debut novel is one of the strangest love stories ever told, as well as an exploration into the unknown heart of our country.