Summary
Amidst the sawdust and sweat of Northwestern logging camps, John 'Hardwood' Haynes rules as undisputed monarch of axemen—until fate delivers a perplexing inheritance. Journeying to the sultry, unfamiliar terrain of New Orleans, Hardwood discovers his legacy manifests not as timberland or tavern but as 'Madame Chantelle’s Emporium,' a boutique specializing in the very petticoats he considers frivolous symbols of femininity. Confronted by bewildered seamstresses, skeptical society matrons, and the savvy shop manager Celeste Dubois, the lumberjack's rigid worldview splinters like overstressed pine. His clumsy attempts to impose frontier logic on lace-trimmed commerce ignite comedic chaos, while a tentative romance with widowed heiress Eleanor Vance forces introspection beneath his bark-thick exterior. The collision of bayou gentility and backwoods brawn crescendos when rival merchant Beauregard Leclerc attempts a hostile takeover, compelling Hardwood to weaponize his unconventional tactics—transforming crinolines into canvases of subversion and mannequins into allies against pretension.
Synopsis
John Haynes, known as "Hardwood," is a boss lumberjack in the great Northwest woods. During a Saturday-night revel with his pals, he receives a letter informing him he has inherited a modest shop in New Orleans from his late uncle. He has no idea what that means, but he travels to New Orleans to take over his new business, and is dismayed to learns he is now the proprietor of a shop that sells petticoats.
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