The aging poet has been hired to write the libretto for a musical about William Shakespeare and relocates to the fictional Indiana town of Terrebasse.

He must work with collaborators who seem more interested in crude show-biz entertainment than Enderby's intricately rhymed Elizabethan-style verses, and the show's backer—the ostentatious local matron, Mrs. Schoenbaum.

The co-star, in the Dark Lady role, is the luscious black pop-diva April Elgar—and Enderby, consumed with lust, is soon tailoring the show to her non-Elizabethan talents.

She invites Enderby to her home for Christmas, where he must pose as a clergyman, preaching an incoherent sermon to a Baptist congregation.

Eventually, the opening night of 'Actor on his Ass' – as the show is now titled – arrives and Enderby is forced to take over the role of Shakespeare.