Mosquito-infested, dripping with miasmatic mists, flooded by marshes, creeks and lagoons, death by drowning is not an uncommon occurrence in L, a small, isolated town sunk into the banks of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. But when Doctor John Voltaire returns to the place of his birth to settle the "family estate," the drownings increase with a suspicious and frightening frequency, and Voltaire soon becomes a prime suspect in the investigation into the mysterious deaths. As mile-long oil trains cross crumbling city streets and railroad trestles, and acts of eco-terrorism further threaten civic safety, Doctor Voltaire utilizes logic, reason, and homeopathic remedies to confront his family, fate, and the intersection where the personal and the planetary collide.