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It's 1854 and Didier Rain doesn't want to be a rogue. He prefers to think of himself as a gentleman poet. And yet every time Rain finds himself in questionable circumstances, some animal instinct leads him into wrongful behavior. Maybe it's his Oedipal upbringing that's to blame. Or maybe he's just never found a good moral example that hasn't let him down. But now Rain has to put away all of his failings because The Church of the Restructured Truth has hired him to fulfill a prophecy – Didier Rain is to venture into the American Wilderness and deliver a bride into the waiting arms of the Prophet Nehi. It won't be easy, what with all the hooligans, natural phenomena, and carnal temptations between here and there. Not to mention that Virtue – the would-be bride – is at present no more than a babe. But maybe the invisible gods will lend Rain a hand in the endeavor. Maybe Virtue is as much of an angel as she appears. And maybe, by epic journey's end, Didier Rain will overcome the...