Like the other patients in the "Institution," Boots must write how he came to be there. He recounts all the sordid details, starting with losing his job at the toilet paper factory. His ex-girlfriend, Celine, was engaged to be married, and his best friend, Cornmeyer, had become civilized by a woman. For a long day and night, Boots travelled Greater Moncton in his battered old Chevette, trapped in painful memories, trying and failing to find connection and purpose. He narrates the story of his unravelling and his optimistic, if not naive, recovery.