In this subterranean comedy, cantankerous Gertie Stovall discovers an extensive cave system beneath her collapsing backwater farm, and she quickly realizes that if she plays her cards right, the cave could become a cash cow, her personal slice of the American Dream. She enlists the aid of half-brother George Gruder (the driving force behind the area’s new wastewater treatment plant) and gone-to-grad-school caving “expert,” Charlie Tuggle. Enter Dr. Polly Edelweiss, world-class cave biologist, who shows up uninvited, claiming that the sub-surface rights belong to the Blue Sky Energy Consortium. Faced with the prospect of losing control of “her” cave (not to mention a highly unlikely and ever-evolving “cave ape”), Gertie convinces George to turn on the treatment plant’s pumps, thereby flooding the pristine cavern with polluted water and foiling everyone’s plans––her own included.