Tony Steadman is celebrating his fortieth birthday. He ducks into his favorite pub to celebrate with a friend, Nick. They're relatively new acquaintances, but tonight, of all nights, Tony is fed up with Nick. Seemingly everything about his friend reminds him that Tony thinks of himself as a failure. Tony is a technician at a coil manufacturing company which produces wire for speakers. While he envisioned himself as a rising star in his younger years, he is now settling into anonymous mediocrity.
Deciding that he must either loathe himself forever or try once again to "make something" of himself, Tony chooses to give theater a second go round. He wants to be a playwright. In successively deconstructed and disjointed vignettes, the audience watches Tony make various forays into the world of theater. He also tries to ask a woman out but fails. Each of his remedies to mediocrity do not take effect.
Finally, Tony is back at the pub with Nick again. He's distraught and miserable. Once again, Nick is no help. In fact Nick outright threatens Tony, crushing Tony's last hope that people want good for one another. The ending is appropriately vague, but, as may be guessed at this point, Tony does not find infinite wealth, respect, and happiness.
