Eight floors up in a crumbling Bayswater flat, Richard - a misanthropic proofreader devoted to his kettle - wants only to be left alone. His flatmate Ollie, an earnest but hopelessly naïve publishing assistant, secretly invites disaster by publishing a deranged self-help manuscript from the slush pile.

The book: a Taoist sex-and-vegetables manifesto by Dr Rufus Mandrill, a disgraced osteopath, former bestseller, and spectacular boundary failure. When Richard pretends to be involved to impress an ex, both men are dragged into the least viable publishing venture in modern history.

As Mandrill installs himself in their lives - his Olympian ego matched only by his goatish libido - careers unravel, relationships combust, and a celebrity book launch careers toward catastrophe.