In this darkly funny story, Ray and Jewel Kaiser try (and push) their luck at the Paradise casino. What curious events ensue, what tricks of fortune and misfortune, make up the fabric of this novel about wising up better late than never.

Jewel's fourteen-year-old daughter, Ray's dead father, and a mother convinced that a sitcom star is visiting across the street from her house feature in the Kaiser's adventures. Dazed casino denizens, a lusty grocery-store manager, body-pierced children, and hourly employees in full revolt enhance the setting. This is the story of a couple who, after tumbling headfirst out of their middle-class Garden of Eden, discover they've landed in an even more fertile garden outside its walls.