When a census taker stumbles upon a backwoods polygamous clan, wily wife #4 sees him as her ticket to freedom. When she jumps into his Jeep and bullets begin to fly, he has no choice but to flee into the woods with his unwanted guest.

SYNOPSIS:

We open on Nick Prince, a hapless census worker who wants nothing more than to reconnect with his lost love and quit his thankless job—a job that requires him to prowl the backwoods of the Oregon Cascades and extract census data from countless misfits and ne’er-do-wells who live off the grid for a reason.

Door after door is slammed in Nick’s face and he’s chased off with shotguns, pit bulls, and every manner of threat. Still he persists, knowing that his job performance is rated by the number of interviews he completes, regardless of the obstacles. What he fears more than the daily threats is the acerbic and withering criticism of his supervisor, Angie, a middle-aged, chainsmoking, shrew he calls “Angina,” because “she’s about as pleasant as a heart attack.”

Nick gets more than he bargains for when his assignment takes him to a remote, walled compound, deep in the woods, that is home to a wayward clan of polygamists, headed by the cantankerous Father John. While the patriarch isn’t there on his first visit, Nick leaves his card and gets a mysterious middle-of-the-night phone call asking him to come back. When he does, a plan is set in motion.

While Nick is attempting to persuade Father John of the legal requirement to answer the census questions, Rebecca—his fourth wife—jumps into Nick’s jeep with two kids and demands to be taken to safety. Nick declines, citing government regulations. His point becomes moot, however, when Father John grabs a shotgun. Nick’s left with no choice but to flee with the trio of refugees.

Things go from sweet to hysterical and back again as Nick tries to deal with Rebecca and the kids. He can’t take them back to danger. Rebecca refuses to go to a shelter, fearing government reprisal. Angie is poking around, wondering about Nick’s odd behavior. And on top of it all, Rebecca is hatching a plan to rescue the remaining wives and children. Meanwhile, she’s moved into Nick’s tiny cabin and begins remaking it—and Nick’s life—in ways that Nick could never have imagined.

Rebecca’s plan, which Nick again finds himself drawn into against his better judgment, takes some unexpected twists and turns, putting them all at risk, all within a hair of being discovered by Angie. A surreal bicycle chase through the woods, taking Angie hostage, and the milking of a cow all come into play as the plot unfolds.

In the end, Rebecca has erased all Nick’s longings for his lost love, and agrees to be Nick’s “only wife.” Best of all, he’s finally able to escape Angie’s tyranny, quitting his census job to become husband and father, the new patriarch to a different kind of family.