The Lying Scotsman is book 2 in The Mug Trilogy of third-person standalone memoirs. The words were triggered by Mug's entanglement with Michael. Mug was a recently divorced woman in her late forties. Michael was a complex, enigmatic Scottish baggage handler eleven years her junior who was hiding shocking secrets from the world.

Mug began writing a painfully honest book about their unusual story, planning to give it to Michael for Christmas to show her love for him. After reading a few chapters and riddled with guilt over what he was hiding from her, he sent her a text threatening to drive off a cliff. After Mug eventually discovering the shocking truths Michael had been hiding for years, she also wanted to die. The purpose of her book then changed. It became her attempt to make sense of the bizarre events unfolding as she wrote it, and to help her and Michael to deal with the aftermath.