Mayhem is at its bawdy best in Lizard Flats, a town lousy with gamblers, fornicators and misfits, a rowdy band either doomed to damnation or ripe for salvation -- depending on the point of view . . .

With the news that their first honest-to-goodness preacher is coming the whole town is in a stir, including Leticia Murphy, the only whore left at the White Dove Saloon. What they don't know is that the good reverend is actually a rake on the run from a cluster of angry widows, disgraced virgins and their aggrieved men. But before he gets to dupe this town full of sinners, he meets his Maker in Letty's bed the very day he arrives.

In her line of work, Letty has known a lot of men, but never has she had one die on her. As sure as the sun sets in the west, she'll be hanged for killing a man of the cloth. But miracles come in all shapes and sizes, and to Letty's desperate eyes, salvation is sitting at the bar downstairs. Eulis Potter may be the town's grave digger and resident drunk, but he knows where to hide a body and fits nicely into the preacher's clothes. With a bath and a shave and a Bible in his hands, maybe even a no-account cur like Eulis can hoodwink the town while getting back on the straight and narrow, and give Lizard Flats the redemption it needs.