Miles Trout is dubious when his cousin Lucky keels over a second time-—and the corpse disappears. This launches the Napa Valley tour guide on a crusade in which he tangles with Lucky’s scheming mother Angelina, mixes it up with the witch China Rose, carries on his halting love affair with the former exotic dancer Pixie Limber, and discovers the once vaporized winemaker Victor Koz, long ridiculed for his conversations with outer space aliens.