A college professor, caught in an affair with a student, fired by the university and thrown out by his wife, hits the road in despair and finds himself at St. Jones’ Ditch, a dusty back road town and bar in Texas, drinking himself to oblivion with a collection of odd characters staggering between life and death under the sympathetic eye of the woman proprietor.

SYNOPSIS:

Tim Donnelly is an English professor at a college in Seattle, with a professor wife and a daughter attending the same school. His daughter catches him quite literally with his pants down, in his office with her room-mate. In quick order, he loses his job, disowned by his daughter, and thrown out of the house by his wife. After days of aimless motoring, he finds himself in St. Jones’ Ditch, a Texas town in the middle of nowhere. Tim takes a room at the motel and begins his sojourn at The Ditch, the local watering hole where people seem to go to drink and die, pretty much the only things to do in town.

At The Ditch, he meets a host of odd characters in various states of despair. Teri, the bartender and owner, is a good listener but pulls no punches. Everyone has a nickname, given by Teri soon after their arrival: Fishstick, Number Three, Maybelline – each telling something about their stories or their persona. Tim is dubbed “Padre” after he attempts to order a glass of wine on his first visit to the whiskey-and-beer soaked bar. Despite his initial disdain for the other customers, he soon slides into the daily drinkfest that is life at the Ditch.

There are some locals every bit as odd as the patrons of the Ditch; particularly the four more-or-less grown sons of the large, daydress-clad motel owner, Charlene, who have their own comical and/or twisted paths. Tim learns that not every life wants saving when Blues nearly chokes to death in the bar, and Tim resuscitates him, to Blues' despair. Blues is dead by morning of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tim descends further into a drunken depression and makes a feeble attempt at suicide.

When Ol’ Dewey dies and is buried in the makeshift cemetery in town, Tim begins to doubt his spiraling misdirection, encouraged by Teri. Attempts to reach his daughter and wife finally succeed – tempers are cooler, and there is hope of a partial reconciliation. He resolves to leave, but finds that his car won’t start, thanks to the mischief of the two youngest motel boys, and Tim remains stuck, quickly losing steam again, even as Fishstick finds a path to a new life.

A big storm blows through town, creating festive atmosphere until it kicks out a tornado – and lightning starts a fire at the hotel. While everyone else takes cover, Tim pulls Charlene out of the fire, just before the tornado lifts away a chunk of the burning motel. Right after the storm, the dry riverbed comes to life, and the youngest motel boys reveal the boat that they’ve built for just that eventuality, causing a moment of joy in the usually bleak town. Tim embraces the possibility of redemption and new life, even when all seemed lost, and he leaves town, hopeful of reconciliation with his family.