Withdrawn from the world, Sally Gunnar spends her days alone at home, reading drugstore mysteries, polishing the doorknobs, waxing the floors. Her only companions are a vase of goldfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning supplies. Looking back, Sally remembers her blighted romances with self-important men, her awkward years at college, and her struggle to feel at home in her own body. Written in 1971 and published posthumously 50 years later, Katherine Dunn's darkly comic novel anticipates her National Book Award 1989 finalist Geek Love.