A benighted Southern town summons the audacity to undertake a World4s Fair, with the help of a local bank brilliantly computer managed by a convicted embezzler. Reflecting the community4s entitlement mentality and typical of its provincial university, mediocrities swarm to staff the fair. They sabotage talent above and suppress it below-a phenomenon familiar to anyone caught in an organization, large or small, that is suffocating in incompetence. When the bank turns into a high-tech shell game and prominent locals invest in the cocaine trade, there is no beacon to shine into dark corners, for the hometown newspaper is part of the inbred hypocrisy. Remus City, South Carolina, prefers to affirm its smugness in what it has always been, rather than explore what it might become. In sharp contrast are a courageous woman and two uncommon men-the inseparable "oddest couple," determined to triumph despite all odds, standing three as one against the tide of conformity. Their mutual salute: three thumbs up. From impoverished childhood in a culture of denial and bigotry, where it is a sin to be different, to their battles as adults to live honorable lives in a stultifying environment riddled with self-delusion and arrogance, all they have in common is each other: