Tom Huttle's dream has finally come true. And it's a nighmare. After years of thankless toil as a freelance business writer, Tom Huttle has finally sold a book. Garbage will be a scathing expose about the trash business, and, Tom hopes, propel its author to celebrity. On a research trip, Tom stumbles upon tiny, isolated Echo Valley and, thinking he's found paradise, he soon moves there with his wife and son. But Echo Valley isn't nearly as ideal as it seems. Civic life is dominated by Bagnoosianism, a crackpot religion presided over by the enigmatic Swami Bagnoose. Tom's wife, Amy, soon succumbs to the allure of Bagnoosianism, undergoes regular colonic irrigation at the Bagnoose Spiritual Center, and is being sculpted, nude, by a local artist. Meanwhile, the promised contract for Garbage never comes through. And the publisher constantly changes hands, making increasingly bizarre demands on Tom. As his life falls apart, Tom succumbs to a maniacal fondness for pink lemonade laced with herbicide. And things are about to get a lot worse.