Miles Derry is a down-on-his-luck recovering alcoholic who, in his sole pursuit to make his monthly child support payment, has taken on a string of dead-end and often seedy jobs. One night, while working at the Little Pink Bookstore, he comes across a stiff - in every sense of the word - who turns out to be a chaplin in the U.S. Navy.

Choosing to take the chaplain's identity as a way out of his own miserable life, Miles burns the body - and his bridges - and reports for duty on the USS Warren Harding as it embarks for Southeast Asia.

Under way on the high seas, Miles finds adventure and intrigue. In addition to the challenges of presenting himself as a convincing military man of the cloth, he discovers that his alter ego is married and a closet homosexual to boot. As the ship travels from Okinawa to the Philippines to Burma, Miles finds himself in murky waters, but it's certainly our pleasure as the author draws out all the irony and humor in the situation.