This is a story about a coming, slowly creeping, once in a millennium climatological disaster event. Yet the residents of a small Pacific Northwest town, especially their Mayor, seem more concerned with the taking up of a homeless man and his cohort in downtown, a development threatening to ruin their idyllic self-perceptions. Even as the storm readies to deliver a direct hit, many view the homeless men as the true "plague" rather than a dust storm, acid spitting, Tornado funnel-front that has reduced Syracuse and Chicago to utter ruin.
Ultimately, it is a story about what it means to love one's neighbor, what it means to sacrifice, what it means to trust in God's providential, often unseen, plans.