It's the early eighties and Olney Garkle has returned to California after several years of itinerant travel in Europe and Asia, culminating in a failed love affair in Paris. His immediate goal is to put an end to his life of hedonism-on-a-shoestring by getting a job. With modest bills in the mailbox of a modest apartment he can then begin the book that he hopes will give vent to his greatest outrage: the triumph of politics over people, and resolve his greatest conflict: the battle between lust and spirituality. After a morning of surreal job interviews, Olney repairs to the Moon Food Cafe, one of those ubiquitous Chinese-American eateries whose menus were dittoed in the year dot, to make his last stand against a future that may not exist.