Tom E. Nicholson

Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles, is an icon of children's TV. But when his family begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through this crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

Follows the lives and families of three adults living and growing up in the United States of America in present and past times. As their paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways, we find that several of them share the same birthday - and so much more than anyone would expect.

Katherine "Kat" McDonald thought she had left her small Ohio hometown behind when she went out into the world to play pro soccer. When she gets word that her mentor, Dot, has died, Kat reluctantly returns home for the wake, only to learn she has inherited "Dot's Hole", the only gay bar in three counties.