The plot follows four characters, Karen, Rick, Luke, and Rachel, as they arrive in the lounge of an airport bar, as they interact with one another, and as they cope with chaos that erupts as cataclysmic events occur.

While previous novelists, such as Margaret Atwood and Thomas King, had delivered traditional academic lectures, Coupland felt that "a narrative seemed like the most efficient and accessible way of putting forth a large number of propositions about life in the year 2010.

The first chapter, "Hour One: Cue the Flaming Zeppelin", has Karen arriving at the Toronto airport on a flight from Winnipeg to meet a man she met online.

In "Hour Four: Hello, My Name Is: Monster" Rick and Rachel have sex, the sniper explains his motivations, and a teenager suffering from chemical burns seeks their help.

In the final chapter "Hour Five: The View From Inside Daffy Duck's Hole" Karen and Luke tend to the teenager's wounds.

[2] The story is told as a first-person narrative with the perspective rotated between the five main characters: Karen, Luke, Rick, Rachel, and Player One.

[2] One reviewer mentioned that the book has "quintessential Coupland themes, chiefly, how the speed of change, both technologically and socially driven, is altering the world, our own sense of self and our souls".

[8] The review in the Library Journal wrote that the book is "eminently readable, humorous, and philosophical if at times slightly lightweight" and that it "is a worthwhile novel that may also appeal to younger readers".

[10] In the Booklist review, Jonathan Fullmer writes, "A taut and scintillating exploration of time, Coupland's tale is both smart and suspenseful while simultaneously questioning the meaning of narration.