The year is 1936, and Val Svenson just can't win. Mixed up with mobsters, he witnesses something he really shouldn't have and has to literally run for his life. He takes the first bus out of New York for anywhere and winds up in Alabama—of all places to land for a tough city kid and a glamorous drag performer stage-named Sugar. To make matters worse, he becomes ill and has to be hospitalized.

A year later, he's finally out of the hospital after being given up for dead, but he has no money and no place to go. A good friend he made in the hospital asks him to come home with him until he gets back on his feet. But is rural Alabama, and his friend's handsome brother, a tough country sheriff, really ready for this much gorgeous foul-mouthed trouble?

Instant chemistry, a volatile attraction, and too many questions that Val can't answer are a recipe for trouble that follows Val all the way to his new home, threatening not only his life but the life of the ones he's coming to love.