A con man runs away from trouble, and straight into worse trouble, in a comic caper that's "part thriller, part farce" (Kirkus Reviews).
Fifty-eight-year-old Harry Christmas is a mess. Unable to cope with the death of his wife, he's been bouncing from one bad decision to the next—often involving alcohol, cheap cons, and fraud. Now he's swindled the wrong woman, and her son, a vengeful psycho with an Oedipal complex, isn't happy. What else is there to do but head to Venezuela?

On a mission to track down his late wife's ancestral village, as well as save his own miserable neck, Harry arrives in South America certain that his fortunes are about to improve. Boy, is he wrong. Soon out of money and luck, he engages in yet more deceit—with devastating consequences for those he has fooled. Lost, drunk, and lurching across rural Venezuela, Harry reaches the point of breakdown....and then wakes up in a village at the end of the world, hanging by one leg from a tree.

Dangling only feet above a spiritual abyss, Harry decides it's really time to turn his life around. The key may be a lovely, inviting woman named Judith. But how long can redemption last when you're a career liar, hunted relentlessly by a wild-eyed assassin? The answer, in the words of Michael Palin, is "very funny, very moving and very unpleasant."