April, 1975. Life just doesn't seem to want to cooperate with cabbie-artist Johnny Jump. Having helped rid his rust belt city of a dangerous, corrupt alderman and his murderous paramour he now finds himself under threat of violent termination from the underworld associates of the recently expired elected official. He is told in no uncertain terms by the local police that he must disappear.

Captain Leonard Featherstone of the PD suggests Johnny cool his heels in Featherstone's home town of Jerusalem, a centuries old port town on the upper Mississippi River. Featherstone remembers Jerusalem fondly as an idyllic boyhood fantasy, and he offers to buy Johnny a one-way bus ticket and set him up with Featherstone's Tenth Mountain Division buddy, former biker and combat veteran turned artist One-Arm Willy Stubbs....