Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of the main character, Ethan Jarlewski, and his team of video game programmers whose last names all begin with the letter 'J'.

JPod is an avant-garde novel of six young adults, whose last names all begin with the letter 'J' and who are assigned to the same cubicle pod by someone in human resources through a computer glitch, working at Neotronic Arts, a fictional Burnaby-based video game company.

Ethan's realtor brother Greg involves himself with Asian crime lord Kam Fong who serves as the plot's crux of character connection.

Ethan begins to date the newest addition to JPod, Kaitlin, and their relationship grows as she discovers that most of the members of the team, including herself, are mildly autistic.

Coupland is mentioned as being "possibly the most gifted exegete of North American mass culture writing today", with JPod being "his strongest, best-observed novel since Microserfs.

"[9] JPod is described as an engaging book, with bizarre characters and devices making it "definitely worth the read" and while it is "not fully satisfying, it is entertaining".

[13] As well, many critics found that Coupland's appearance as a character was annoying, "narcissistic" and "an obvious and sort of sad attempt to turn [himself] into a cultural icon".