MR. FALLSELF, looking for love through binoculars, encounters the heavily bandaged Mr. E. (MUMMY), who claims to be a symbol for something wheelchair-bound and damaged in everyone. To explain his trapped condition, he tells the story of JOE POET, whose lesson is, to learn to see with a single I.

Like any good storyteller, the tale he spins is also a metaphor—in this case, for the psyche. MUMMY starts his fable drawing on Nordic myth. to say it is time to give power and achievement the lower place, which was WOTAN's lesson. WOTAN, as chief of the gods, implies the Ego, with its drive to power. His fortress, Valhalla, is a barricade image that will re-appear in various guises. It implies what the Ego compulsively seeks, the promise of lasting security in the outer. Not only is it defense against threats, it is a sky castle, and implies living in the mind. New characters then enter his story who are the other "people" of our psyche. Throughout, his fable changes scenarios the way a dream will borrow detail and symbol from one setting, then switch to another setting entirely to further develop its underlying theme.

His tale begins in Upper Valhalla, where WOTAN, once chief god, complains bitterly that the goddess faction is taking over both his castle and his rule of earth. BRUNNHILDE, his resurrected daughter, tries to explain why that was necessary. A letter he must deliver, to keep peace with his wife, warns that a certain prized poet is about to take his life. Asked to intervene, BRUNNHILDE bids goodbye to the embittered WOTAN.

At his favorite campsite on an Indian reservation, the suicidal JOE laments his unlucky life while overdosing on pills. He salutes a falling star one last time, and is suddenly interrupted by a Native American couple. Unknown to him, they are his rescue team from the stars.

The rest of the story takes place in Dreamtime. JOE is put in the care and keeping of ROSE, an attractive Indian maiden who speaks of something she calls Sweet Remembrance. Smitten, JOE cooperates, and during an elated taste of Sweet Remembrance, he sweeps ROSE off her feet, enough to get her to agree to become his lover.

Together they explore JOE's wound and shadow, the nature of Death, and the illusions of Time. Under her guidance, he learns a major lesson when he confronts the tyrant IEGO, after receiving a message to "slay your father and marry your mother." ROSE then reveals her connection to BRUNNHILDE and, to JOE's own soul.

Finally, when JOE only wants to remain with ROSE, she agrees, in love, to become human and return to earth with him.

What happens next completes the story and returns us to MR. FALLSELF, who is challenged to make a new choice. Either continue looking outside for love and security, or find it deep within, as Sweet Remembrance.

In an entertaining way, JOE's story draws fresh insight from Wagner's Ring cycle and the Oedipal myth, and takes a sly romp through Shakespeare to arrive at Adam and Eve. In the end, JOE learns the secret to waking from the dream of separation.

On a deeper level, the play deals with the return of Goddess, the need to personally re-connect with the female principle, and, the resultng cultural shift from the Warrior-Hero to the Artist-Hero, who brings joy, not death. In all, a richly revealing and inspiring musical.