Calvin Puckett, a deeply religious man enduring a bout of depression, goes on a trip to the Yukon with his estranged father, where disaster strikes, leaving them without food in the freezing Arctic. To survive, their guide deceives Calvin into eating his father's remains.
Later, when Calvin - and the media - discover the awful truth, he finds infamy as a viral internet meme.
He suffers a terrible mental and spiritual breakdown, and sets out on a string of surreal experiences throughoutÊthe state of Texas. Calvin meets his long lost sister, helps the family of a girl suffering from boanthropy, befriends a mutated pig known as the Brazos River Creature, and - in the story's ultimateÊclimax - holds a politician hostage in the hopes of saving the ghastly beast from being euthanized.