It’s the go-go 1980s when journalist Wally Pearson gets mugged in Times Square. It’s a jolt that prompts him to throw away his career and open a cafe in his small hometown. Little does he know that in doing so he’s about to get entrapped in the collision of fame, fortune, ambition and love in the northwoods of Wisconsin—all tempered with more than a little delusion.

His Loon Town Cafe is the common meeting ground for many different forces. Chicago millionaire Henry Van Elkind plots from his lavish summer camp a transformation of the region. The Native American tribe, whose reservation edges the town, is about to flex its muscle on fishing and gambling rights. Wally’s young wait staff is more interested in romance, and his oddball trio of regulars spend much of their time arguing over visiting space aliens, mutant fish and the availability of wild strawberry jam.

Ultimately, Wally is faced with decisions of who he trusts, who he befriends and what sort of town he wants as his home.

Through it all runs the common question of what truly matters in family, home and life. In hearing and living the convoluted stories of his small town, Wally comes to face his own demons and to find value in the simple truths behind love and life.

Like a Garrison Keillor novel, Tales from the Loon Town Cafe seeks to capture the unique character and rhythms of small Midwestern towns. But it also recognizes the undercurrent of despair and sometime downright loopiness that emerges when most everyone thinks they know most everything that’s going on.

But of course they don’t really know all, and that’s why Tales from the Loon Town Cafe is ultimately a mystery of life.

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