A large pharmaceutical company begins operations in a small outlying community in New England. Interdependence, intrinsic distrust, confused rumors and local ethics all become part of the mix. A local school teacher leads a group of concerned citizens who are suspicious about the research being conducted by the company. Honesty and morality and a menagerie of animals become part of the debate. There are the weak and the strong and sometimes there is bullying in the Company and among townspeople. In all of this Duckegg moves between his sense of not belonging to his often dysfunctional family and to the pride of being a hero. He is honest with himself but sometimes blatantly dishonest with others. He suffers the sorrow of loss and the shame of unintentional harm done by him. The balancing act between the Company and the Towns people, the personal conflicts and the clashing of personalities, the bullies and the bullied, the clever and the not so smart, the conniving and the innocent, ultimately culminates in a town gone mad, at least for a day.