The Jew­ish nov­el­ist Tris­tan Wish­nasky has become famous with claims that his read­ers have noth­ing to hope for but obliv­ion and the Void. But his high life among the glit­terati, and his rela­tions with lovers and friends, are thrown into dis­ar­ray when he starts hal­lu­ci­nat­ing mes­sages telling him he’s ruin­ing his future. With the help of a female rab­bi, a Ruman­ian psy­cho­an­a­lyst, and four pas­sion­ate, idio­syn­crat­ic women, Tris­tan trav­els far and wide in search of a mean­ing­ful exis­tence as a Jew­ish man, a lover, and an artist. In his quest for self-knowl­edge, Tris­tan lurch­es from the art gal­leries of the famous to the home­less shel­ters of the aban­doned; from the arms of col­lege dean Vanes­sa to the bed of strug­gling actress Bar­bara; from a career that ignores every claim beyond ego to the com­pa­ny of peo­ple try­ing to res­cue the imper­iled Earth. As he learns to destroy every false image that’s ever laid claim to him, he begins to think pos­si­ble a life that deeply, tru­ly matters.