Ralph Higbee is a 40-year-old drunkard who lives with his mother to take care of her. When his mother dies, he picks up three women who persuade him to take LSD for an experience. Seeking a companionship to replace his mother, Ralph meets and soon marries Josephine, but he is unable to satisfy her constant desire for sex. He leaves her when he finds out that she has other male and female lovers. Ralph marries a second time, but his second wife, Amanda, is also unfaithful and wants to scam him out of most of his money. Marring for the third time, Ralph is finally happy... until he cheats on her for no good reason and when she finds out... there will literal hell to pay

It's the winter of 1935 and Max Brown is newly arrived in Willowgreen, Saskatchewan - a rural Canadian prairie town - on his first teaching job in a one room schoolhouse. He quickly realizes that this is not a dream situation: the winter is harsher than he's ever experienced, he's living in the basement of the school, the older of his students treat him poorly and his wages are paltry if and when he ever does get paid.