 Good-hearted would-be veterinarian Gilbert  Gilly  Noble, an orphan who works at the animal shelter in Shelbyville, Indiana, starts falling for walking disaster Josephine  Jo  Wingfield, who even cuts his ear while doing his hair in the salon. After six months, they are ready for marriage; just then P.I. Vic Vetter, whom Gilly hired but believed hopelessly inefficient, reports that his mother is Valdine- Jo s too, end she takes terribly bad care of her multiply handicapped dad Walter! Another sixteen months later, Gilly lives at her place and Jo, who moved to Oregon, is about to marry a good catch, Jack Mitchelson; then a certain Leon Pitofsky turns up and proves to be Valdine s son. Gilly is an orphan again, but his love no longer incestuous, so he drives across the country, and in Colorado literally bumps into pilot  Big Dig  McCaffrey, leg-less black scum. Valdine calls ahead to the Beaver PD to report Gilly as a  sister-abuser  and to Jo pretending Gilly believes his "imaginary friend" Leo is her brother, while telling Leon to lay low. After deputy Gina informs groom Jack, who cheats on his bride already, he instructs his ex-con relative Jimmy Mitchelson to scare and rough up  security risk  Gilly, who wakes up in a plane to Puerto Vallarta, lifts all the way back and sees he s wanted, Dig his only ally against the local magnate who deals in - marijuana ...