Arthur Less, a mid-list novelist, is approaching his 50th birthday, and he needs to grow up. But first he needs to get out: Arthur's much younger, exceedingly beautiful ex-boyfriend is getting married, and the last thing Arthur wants to do is attend the wedding. So he accepts every half-baked literary invitation that's recently come his way, slaps together his frequent flier miles, leaves San Francisco, and takes a trip around the world. His travels take him to Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Vietnam, India, and Japan. Along the way, he finds love, despair, adventure, and plenty of misadventure, is forced to come to terms with the fleeting of youth and the realities of life--in often quite hilarious ways.