"Wheatfield, Minnesota, is a metropolis of all six hundred souls and change for which the word "moribund" might have been coined. Nothing ever happened there, and nothing ever would, until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: "I'll Do What I Can") and his precocious teenage buddy come up with a scheme to put Wheatfield on the map. Should something dramatic occur-say, an apparition of the Virgin Mary miraculously appearing at the local Catholic church-the whole town would be turned into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things. The town would get rich! What could possibly go wrong? Then the shootings begin. And as they-and Virgil Flowers-are about to discover, that's only the beginning of their troubles ..."--Front jacket flap.