diff --git a/django_mailbox/models.py b/django_mailbox/models.py
index 010c557..1bce91a 100644
--- a/django_mailbox/models.py
+++ b/django_mailbox/models.py
@@ -57,6 +57,11 @@ ATTACHMENT_INTERPOLATION_HEADER = getattr(
     'DJANGO_MAILBOX_ATTACHMENT_INTERPOLATION_HEADER',
     'X-Django-Mailbox-Interpolate-Attachment'
 )
+ORIGINAL_CHARSET_HEADER = getattr(
+    settings,
+    'DJANGO_MAILBOX_ORIGINAL_CHARSET_HEADER',
+    'X-Django-Mailbox-Original-Charset'
+)
 
 
 class ActiveMailboxManager(models.Manager):
@@ -241,8 +246,15 @@ class Mailbox(models.Model):
         else:
             for header, value in msg.items():
                 new[header] = value
+            charset = msg.get_content_charset()
+            if charset:
+                new[ORIGINAL_CHARSET_HEADER] = str(charset)
+                new.set_charset('utf-8')
+            payload = msg.get_payload()
             new.set_payload(
-                msg.get_payload()
+                # Remove any characters that are invalid in the
+                # encoding that this part is supposed to be in.
+                payload.decode(charset, 'replace').encode('utf-8')
             )
         return new
 
@@ -259,7 +271,7 @@ class Mailbox(models.Model):
             msg.to_header = message['to']
         msg.save()
         message = self._get_dehydrated_message(message, msg)
-        msg.body = unicode(message.as_string(),'utf8','ignore')
+        msg.body = message.as_string().decode('utf-8')
         if message['in-reply-to']:
             try:
                 msg.in_reply_to = Message.objects.filter(
@@ -414,8 +426,12 @@ class Message(models.Model):
                 ):
                     charset = part.get_content_charset()
                     this_part = part.get_payload(decode=True)
+                    # For some unknown reason, get_payload() has returned
+                    # to us a unicode object -- it should be bytes :-\
+                    this_part = this_part.encode('unicode-escape')
+                    this_part = this_part.decode('string-escape')
                     if charset:
-                        this_part = this_part.decode(charset)
+                        this_part = this_part.decode(charset, 'replace')
                     body += this_part
             return body
 
@@ -471,11 +487,15 @@ class Message(models.Model):
                 )
                 new.set_payload('')
         else:
+            payload = msg.get_payload().decode('utf-8')
             for header, value in msg.items():
+                if header == ORIGINAL_CHARSET_HEADER:
+                    payload.encode(value)
+                    new.set_charset(value)
+                    # We do not want to preserve this header
+                    continue
                 new[header] = value
-            new.set_payload(
-                msg.get_payload()
-            )
+            new.set_payload(payload)
         return new
 
     def get_email_object(self):
diff --git a/django_mailbox/tests/message_with_utf16_char.eml b/django_mailbox/tests/message_with_utf8_char.eml
similarity index 96%
rename from django_mailbox/tests/message_with_utf16_char.eml
rename to django_mailbox/tests/message_with_utf8_char.eml
index 7869100..83761c5 100644
--- a/django_mailbox/tests/message_with_utf16_char.eml
+++ b/django_mailbox/tests/message_with_utf8_char.eml
@@ -55,11 +55,3 @@ X-Mailer: Seven Enterprise Gateway (v 2.0)
 
 
 This message contains funny UTF16 characters like this one: " " and this one "✿".
------Original Message-----
-Date: Wednesday, December 26, 2012 1:53:27 pm
-To: user2@yahoo.com
-From: "Person" <user3@example.com>
-Subject: Fwd: Stuff
-
-Person -
-etc...
diff --git a/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py b/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py
index bf92dc8..9df4b7f 100644
--- a/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py
+++ b/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py
@@ -109,3 +109,25 @@ class TestProcessEmail(EmailMessageTestCase):
             expected_body,
             actual_body
         )
+
+    def test_message_with_misplaced_utf8_content(self):
+        """ Ensure that we properly handle incorrectly encoded messages
+
+        ``message_with_utf8_char.eml``'s primary text payload is marked
+        as being iso-8859-1 data, but actually contains UTF-8 bytes.
+
+        """
+        email_object = self._get_email_object('message_with_utf8_char.eml')
+
+        msg = self.mailbox.process_incoming_message(email_object)
+
+        actual_text = msg.get_text_body()
+        expected_text = (
+            u'This message contains funny UTF16 characters like this one: '
+            u'"\xc2\xa0" and this one "\xe2\x9c\xbf".'
+        )
+
+        self.assertEqual(
+            expected_text,
+            actual_text,
+        )