An airliner breaks up over the Midwest and a casket being shipped cross country falls to earth. Two brothers discover it in a ploughed field and its occupant changes their lives forever. The dead woman, Claire, eventually becomes an exhibit in a carnival because for some unknown reason her body refuses to decompose. She also transforms the lives of a disintegrating family of three transplanted from back east. This story is by turns serious, humorous, tragic, and magical.