In this semi-comic rollercoaster of a book, we get to know Stan, the middle-aged owner of a small hardware store in the Midwest. He is a complete neurotic, a wannabe actor, an inadequate boyfriend to his impatient girlfriend, and desperate to come up with a promotion to boost his faltering store. The promotion he devises blows up in his face, and he frantically tries to fix it, but the more he tries, the worse it gets. It spins completely out of control...