
When I was thirty-five and freshly separated and still a stouthearted pilgrim to myself, I took a job on the Gulf Coast swindling people. I sold fake trailer lot deeds to investors with souls more crooked than my own. This is the voice of Richard, the winning and irrepressible...

Richard is like a traveler or pilgrim, moving from Haw River, North Carolina, to Arkansas to the Texas Gulf Coast and finally back to North Carolina again, as he and his people -- they drink hard, dance in their kitchens, lie and cheat -- struggle with their love and wrestle...
