Frances Johnson

Frances Johnson would rather stay away from the community dance in Munson, a small Florida town, but its residents make it hard to refuse. Her boyfriend Ray is so absorbed in world history that he barely notices anything else. Mal, a horse-mad and sincere cook at Mal's Pico diner, offers her the use of his cabin. Palmer, the town doctor, has no remedy for a strange scar Frances bears, and her mother keeps trying to reach her through Munson's faulty phone lines, her voice buried in static.

Outside town, a volcano the locals call Sharla throws up lava and rocks, turning the night sky an ominous red. The novel moves at a deliberate pace while building tension, following Frances as the town's expectations press in on her.

The book is written in the comedy of manners tradition associated with Jane Bowles.