It begins with Delancey, a reporter for the East Hampton Star, being questioned on what he knows about a plan to assassinate the President (lovingly referred to as POTUS). It introduces us to le tout de Washington: the socialite (and exiled eighties New York party girl) Anastasia Harrington (a.k.a. Bam-Bam), and her millionaire husband, Max; a senator obsessed with his porn-star boyfriend; the semi-retired transvestite ballerina Odette O'Doyle and the diva (operatic and otherwise) Vana Sprezza; and Delancey's new friend Ornette, a living antidote to the racism of our times who sympathizes with the sexually profligate POTUS.

From Delancey's trip on the Metroliner, where it all begins, to a drink-soaked escapade in Key West, to soirees at the Harringtons' and the Cosmos Club, to the grand finale (an uproarious bal masque at the Library of Congress), McCourt shows us Washington as it should be -- upside down, and inside right.