A short kid from a Canadian army base becomes the international pop culture darling of the 1980s—only to find the course of his life altered by a stunning diagnosis. What happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease?

Mary traces the lives of a woman caught in a scandal of adultery, another rejected and ignored because of her promiscuity, a third shunned because of a shameful condition, and a widow cast out from society, mourning the loss of her only son.