Miracelle Loving's world comes crashing down when her mother, Ruby, is
murdered during a fortune-telling session gone wrong. Without the
guidance of her mother, Miracelle grows up following the only path she
knows, traveling from town to town, sometimes fortune-telling, picking
up odd jobs to fill the time and escape the ever-present lostness she
can't seem to run far enough away from.
Uncertain of what she wants and, indeed, whether she wants anything or
anyone at all, the now thirty-something-year-old finds herself working
as a card reader in a Knoxville dive bar, selling fictions as futures,
when she is confronted with her mother's ghost voice promising to reveal
the truth about her shadowy past. Desperate for answers, Miracelle sets
out on a magical road trip unlike any other, in search of her own story
and a father she's never known.
Following snowy highways and backroads, Miracelle stumbles across a
museum of oddities and a hole-in-the-road town called Radiant,
ultimately wandering into the town of Smyte, where she begins
waitressing at the Black Cat Diner. Here, she befriends card-playing
has-been Russell Wallen, whom she joins for a series of nighttime
adventures, long drives, and after-dark visits to a Holy Roller church.
This mythical journey uncovers family secrets and forgotten truths,
transforming a familiar story of love and betrayal to reveal the binding
power of magic and memory.
