A tequila debacle leaves a forty-year-old Mississippi man sorting his mid-life mess of unemployment and a collapsing marriage. But after a beautiful Argentine painter calls out Larry Winstead's inner artist then a new job in the fast-paced janitorial services industry zips him to post-Katrina New Orleans, a cadre of artsy, worldly strangers help him discover who he is, and who he isn't. A father's mysterious disappearance and a tossed writing dream still trouble Larry even after twenty years. But in the creative renewal of a big city pulse, a hobbyist clairvoyant and an iron sculpture expose his uncertainties while a philosophical maintenance worker teaches him to Chop Wood, Carry Water. Yet, Emma, an inspiring clear-eyed yoga instructor grasps what Larry has overlooked in his search for the fulfilled life he yearns for yet has denied himself. A serendipitous discovery will scramble the fates of Larry's new web of friends. But sometimes when things fall apart, they fall together again.
