M*A*S*H Goes to Maine

The day he is discharged, old army buddy and co-conspirator in hijinks "Trapper John" McIntyre comes to visit and sets Hawkeye's future in motion.

and "Wooden Leg" Wilcox (the local fish marketing magnate) come to visit Hawkeye to set him up in practice—by betting favorably on the outcome of his operations.

By 1959, Hawkeye has lured Trapper John, Duke Forrest, and "Spearchucker" Jones into his net, and thanks to the proceeds of the "Allcock-Wilcox" syndicate, a new "Finestkind Fishmarket and Clinic" is set up along with the newly constructed Spruce Harbor General Hospital.

Trapper John is lured to the area by the possibility of becoming the Don of Spruce Harbor in the Cardia Nostra and becomes romantically involved with Hawkeye's secretary, Lucinda Lively, whom he eventually marries.

Along the way, the reader meets more of the local characters, including "Wrong Way" Napolitano, who sometimes uses the transatlantic jet planes he flies for a major airline to spot fish for his fisherman relatives in the Gulf of Maine; "Moose" Lord, a longtime friend of "Big Benjy" Pierce who contracts a rare and extremely nasty form of cancer that Hawkeye has to treat; "Goofus" MacDuff, the medical director of Spruce Harbor General, whose ability to summarize a case and reach the completely wrong conclusion and diagnosis is the stuff of legend to the Swampmen; "Doggy" Moore, the previously mentioned general practitioner whose adopted son Chip (short for Chipmunk) Moore was a high school and college buddy of Hawkeye's; "Half A Man" Timberlake, who is not overly bright but is sexually insatiable, and Wooden Leg's loyal henchman; the three local hookers, 'Bang-Bang" Betty, "Mattress" Mary, and "Made" Marion; and Hawkeye's Uncle Lewis "Lew the Jew" Pierce, who is a fanatic golfer and lives on an old fishing pier in The Solid Rust Cadillac.