Private Murphy begins his year in Vietnam, stuck in the worst of both worlds: the insanity of war, and the bureaucratic absurdity of the U.S. Army. Unable to type, but assigned to a clerical office where he is expected to produce volumes of paperwork and typed reports and citations, Murphy disappears from the relatively distant death and destruction being inflicted upon the people of Vietnam - a distant but very real nightmare. Sitting in place all day, every day, at his typewriter of heroes, he escapes into his fantasies, memories, and occasional unhappy dreams. Stuck in their own, individual, dysfunctional limbos, no one else in the office notices that Murphy has drifted off into an altered state - into a different dimension of hallucinations and never-ending imagery, including flashbacks to the New Orleans Mardi Gras and the midnight show at the Show Bar club on Bourbon Street, featuring the one and only Miss Patti White, the hottest act in town, and the imaginary, heavenly savior to Murphy's very real hell.