When fiddler Tyrane Percival chokes to death on a chicken bone in a West Virginia barnyard, his young protégé, Eldridge Brewer, takes it pretty hard and feels compelled to bring his old friend peace by burying him next to his long lost love, Leona, in her family plot. Unfortunately, that grave is "a hundred thousand miles" away in Louisiana, so Eldy and Percival's former banjo player, Felton Halladay, hit the road in Halladay's 1959 Studebaker pickup with the fiddler's corpse iced down in an inflatable kiddie pool in the truck bed and a flatulent dog named Whistler in the cab. But Leona's uptight brother does not want "that jailbird" anywhere near the family plot and takes steps to prevent it -- with hilarious results. This funny, touching story of reconciliation and forgiveness is told with warmth, charm, and a double helping of down-home wisdom.