In this sizzling story of summer in the Midwest, Gene Clements has written the hottest Tilly and Elmer yet. Elmer and his friend Eddie go fishing in hopes of keeping cool on a hot Iowa afternoon, while Tilly plans to enjoy the heat by reading a pornographic novel. Her afternoon gets even hotter when Johnson, a young arborist, comes to trim the oak tree in her backyard. Tilly's offer of a cool gin and tonic fails to cool things off, and by the end of the afternoon, things have gotten hotter, wetter, and stickier than she expected. Not that she has any complaints, at least until the morning after, when she has to replant the bed of maidenhair ferns next to the garage.