"Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate...

After an encounter with a skunk, Dog Man, now scarlet red after being dunked in tomato juice, is exiled but must find a way to save those who shunned him when an all-new, never-before-seen villain unleashes an army of A.I. robots.