A young editor, thrilled to have secured his dream job with a prestigious small publisher in New York, watches in horror as the firm abandons its standards and begins printing all the lurid novels it can find. The publisher's new books offer Huckleberry Finn re-imagined as a slave trader, Hester Prynne as an ax-wielding vigilante, and Robert Frost as a motorcycle gangster; plus the usual contemporary catalog of fur and fangs. As the publisher embarks on a campaign to conquer New Zealand — and pushes the editor's closest colleague into mental health rehabilitation — he has to decide whether to rebel, quit the job, or surrender.