Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He' s compelled to volunteer at the local Children' s Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week.

Oh, and he' s also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thé rage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc' s pyre in 1431. He' s just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it' s ever been . . . but how will he find her?

When Marvin heads to Los Angeles to locate the woman who may or may not be Joan, he' s picked up hitchhiking by Mike Vale, a self-destructive alcoholic painter traveling to his ex-wife' s funeral. As they move through a California landscape populated with " smokes" (ghostly apparitions that' ve inexplicably begun appearing throughout the southwestern US), each seeks absolution in his own way.