A dystopian novel that examines the issue of environmental destruction: the collapse of the natural world.

There is the protagonist, an anti-hero, who has married the wrong person. The spouse, the antagonist, is a difficult and habitual fault-finder. She has been undermining his and her own sanity for years.

The protagonist has a job to oversee, monitor, and manage environmental destruction that seems to be leading to catastrophe, to a cataclysm; so it is evident that his work has been dragging him down for some time.

Then the dilemma that the story relates is that of a person who gets on with life as anyone might when backed up against the wall and with no reasonable way out. But there is a romantic interest that he comes across, and she is someone who is interested in improving her lot as well.

The story in "The Unorthodox Ox" deals with the untangling of a personal and professional situation which when resolved will allow different parties to move on and live a little better.