A body in a casket burns in the Willamette River and the homeless dance in the searchlight of doom, while the cosmos turns on the true meaning of morality. Years later, in a desolate desert landscape two women meet in a café. Waitress Wanda wields a spatula and tells a laughing Bette the ribald story of how she met her deceased husband. Within minutes, a violent act leaves Bette severely brain injured, and Wanda commits to her care. Their relationship becomes the target of a perverse minister who uses them for his own aggrandizement. Evangelicals, gays, Indians and the homeless converge on the women in the protest march from Hell, agitated by Mark Twain and his final creation, No. 44. This story of struggle and devotion will hold you. You will root for the endearing characters, and the triumph of sweet, sweet good, over sanctimonious evil.