A story of sacrifice, lineage, and forgiveness, which layers a podcast in the future, voicemails left over a period of 20 years, and conversations with the dead. Primarily it is the story of Asher Rhys, who marries Lukas Mellevold at 18, is a widower by 29, and spends his thirties and forties trying to hold on to his son Rott—unfortunately Asher has no legal or biological claim to Rott, and must suffer the indignities of his psychic in-laws in order to stay in his son's life.
While the country watched the Supreme Court legalize gay marriage nationwide, Thibodaux, Louisiana was gripped by the trial of serial killer Brando Gierke. Brando's Dahmer-esque spree claimed the lives of twenty-two men, including Thibodaux's own Tommy Watkins. Jasper Lange, a virgin approaching thirty, dreams of a pilgrim-themed wedding even though he's only ever kissed one man: Tommy Watkins. Confused, lonely and in mourning, Jasper sends a note to Brando, beginning a correspondence that challenges Jasper's perceptions of esteem and love.
After leaving his last foster home, Nixon Eyre follows a man with a mullet into the mountains for an adventure. They end up engaged but, before Nixon can marry his Mullet Man, he has to break a promise to a vampire from his Midwestern past. A tale of gall and wormwood. Of train stations, of Jane Eyre and Marilyn Monroe. And a gay guy who was named after Richard Nixon to piss off his Kennedy-voting grandparents. But he was a foster kid so he never really knew them anyway.