A modern psychedelic Tom Sawyer-type named Radkin runs away from home, to seek his muse by writing a book just like he would build a fireplace, a sturdy structure in which to conjure a flickering warmth to enchant a lady.

It takes a while.

He crisscrosses Appalachia in an Econoline van with a steam engine-styled band, volunteers at a turtle preserve in the Caribbean, and is hired as night watchmen at a veterinary hospital in Vermont where he grows pot in an adjacent forest. He also gives piano lessons to a retired mafioso psychiatrist, Dr. Zuckerman, who has hired a mercenary lawyer- and his young associate- to help him build a state-of-the-art nursing home in the same forest where Radkin grows his crop.

When a bumbling DEA agent is assigned to investigate a suspicious thermal image suggesting a patch of illegal cannabis, both Radkin and his piano student find themselves in a bind...