Estelle Carville, ER nurse at Del Arroyo, is raped, sodomized, murdered, dumped, and found rotting in the woods by two winos. Unsuspecting, Ruth Sanchez, divorced and mother of two, is hired to take Estelle's job and subsequently is raped and sodomized in the third floor parking garage of Del Arroyo Hospital . Determined to keep her job, Ruth borrows a small pistol, and on his second try, she wounds the same guy, who is arrested and charged with murder, assault, rape, and sodomy. A trial ensues. A Cosmological accident causes the entire northern hemisphere to enter a new ice age, and Houston experiences fifty one days of continuous freeze followed by thaw and floods. Martial law is declared, and the military takes over. Bubonic Plague, Ebola, and Typhus ravage Houston, and a death ship is towed out to sea. Hospitals are quarantined, and Army Triage separates out the dying and dead who are promptly cremated. Thaw and floods bring Cholera, dysentery, and death, and 30,000 drown when Lakes-Conroe and Houston dams break. Terrorist blow up the Astrodome and ICU at Del Arroyo. Ruth has adult affairs with Rueben and Harvey and falls in love with Olinda. She moves in with Harvey at the old Cushing mansion in River Oaks and finds it haunted with skeletons, pickled brains, walking ghosts and an ever beating heart that gets louder and louder until it stops and starts over again. WARNING: Violence, profanity, and erotica. Okay for Dummies.