When Charlie Geddis’s wife Barbara chucks him out, he’s more than happy to leave…
But it turns out that bachelor life is not what it is cracked up to be, and soon he yearns for the life he once wanted to flee.
But things have changed, as Charlie discovers when he lets himself into his former home and is confronted by a tall, naked man.
Malcolm Palmer is a rich, charismatic, successful businessman – all the things Charlie is not.
As his reporting career at local paper The Explorer hits the skids, he turns to drink.
Then one day, Malcolm suggests they talk man to man.
He offers Charlie a sum of money for his house, more than it is worth, claiming he and Barbara want to be fair to Charlie.
But Charlie will not let his family home go so easily. And he smells a rat, for property in the Irish town of Ballymenace is not sought-after.
Walking drunkenly home from the meeting, he sees men in balaclavas club a red headed man, and throw him into the pond. But when nobody is found, Charlie’s not sure if he saw it, or dreamed it.
Of course, that doesn’t stop him writing about it, which infuriates his editor and mate Trevor to no end.
Things are looking bad for poor Charlie, when the red headed man falls out of his wardrobe, and onto his bedroom floor.
But Charlie won’t give up, as he thinks the secret to getting Barbara back is to expose Malcolm’s plan to ruin Ballymenace by building a new, modern town.
Soon Charlie is being tied up naked to his co-worker, Jill, who has never been his biggest fan, attacked by a thug undergoing a sex change, and then, just when things are good and crazy, Ireland’s own U2 shows up.