It's one of those quiet evenings on the front porch in Natchez, Mississippi. Just crickets, the distant sound of a few cars, and a bluesy song for harmonica and guitar—as sweet as the sugar shack it talks about. But there's trouble ahead as Neville, a down-home juke-joint man and Diana, who pursues a career at New York's Metropolitan Opera, collide. In Neville's words: "Good Lord woman, send Madam Butterfly back to bed. What's left to eat? I can't stand no opera on no empty stomach." They sing and fight and sing and fight until eventually, they go together—from Natchez to New York. An improvisational work in a fixed form! Commissioned by New American Radio.