Meisel­man has had enough. After a life spent play­ing by the rules, this lone­ly thir­ty-six-year-old man‚ ​“num­ber two” at a sub­ur­ban Chica­go pub­lic library, in charge of events and pro­grams, and in no con­trol what­so­ev­er over his fan­tasies about his dom­i­neer­ing boss‚ is look­ing to come out on top, at last. What seems like an ordi­nary week in 2004 will prove to be a gold­en oppor­tu­ni­ty (at least in his mind) to reverse a life­time of pet­ty humil­i­a­tions. And no one‚ not his new­ly obser­vant wife, not the Holo­caust sur­vivor neigh­bor who reg­u­lar­ly dis­turbs his sleep with her late-night gar­den­ing, and cer­tain­ly not the for­mer-class­mate-turned-renowned-author who’s return­ing to the library for a tri­umphant lit­er­ary home­com­ing‚ will stand in his way.