The novel follows two protagonists, Susan Colgate, a former Miss Wyoming, and John Johnson, a former action film producer.

Both have experienced early success but now find themselves in terminal career decline and with a host of personal problems.

When circumstances intervene to offer routes out of their lives and then to bring them together, they are afforded the opportunity to discover themselves and to brighten their futures.

The title concretely derives from a plot point in the book in which a driven stage mother moves the family to Wyoming because it is the easiest state from which to land contestants in national competitions, though it has been noted that the title also comments on the peculiar notion of longing for something a person hasn't experienced herself.

It begins with a meeting between Susan and John after their yearlong absences from the world, and then progresses to tell the stories of their disappearances through flashbacks.

The inspiration for Miss Wyoming was a 1998 article in The National Enquirer[2] entitled "Leathery movie producer Robert Evans marries Eighties soap star Catherine Oxenberg".

Miss Wyoming marked a radical departure from Coupland's writing style for earlier novels.