Better the Devil You Know , set in Vancouver in 1907, centres on the picaresque adventures of a small-time con man who passes himself off as an evangelical preacher, the scrawny hooker whom he reluctantly befriends, and the five-year-old hellion left in his care by a former lady friend. In the course of their adventures, these three misfits become involved with a larcenous lingerie salesman, a Klondike miner bent on recovering his stolen poke, a madam intent on revenge for past wrongs, a pugilistic lady barkeep, two doctors determined to acquire a cadaver of their own, a handful of incompetent/ corrupt cops, and a piano teacher with reforming zeal. The pace is riotous, the action continuous, and nobody -- good or bad -- ever gets a break.