After travelling to Mardi Gras with friends in an old school bus, Mariah lands in Austin where she has an improbable intimate encounter with Cliff, but they have to separate before she finds out who he is. She wants to find the perfect place, and he wants to be an artist, but when Cliff gets in trouble with the law, he loses his job and escapes to Mexico with his older brother. Then his brother's plane crashes, and Cliff and Mariah set out on separate quests to find out what happened.

Through their eyes, we get a sneak peek inside the art scene of the late 1960s. Colorful characters and suspense-filled scenes at a mysterious hacienda outside San Miguel de Allende give the story a South of the Border flavor. Sexually curious folks in Austin add spice, and beach scenes in Zihuatanejo provide that patch of blue where the eye can rest.

But as the protagonists each get closer to the truth, are they drifting farther apart?

The boundary between what's moral and what's legal gives A Coward's Guide to Oil Painting an outlaw feel, and the principles of painting take it to the level of Art. Instantly accessible, intelligent and nostalgic, it's a love story, a feast of sensual delights and artistic insight-part mystery, part coming-of age, with a dash of international intrigue and a smattering Spanish words-a sensuous bowl of pozole, tasty to the last drop.