Virgil Blaine was enjoying his ordinary life of longterm unemployment as an unpublished poet, that is until he crosses paths with Doug Coulthard, filing clerk and (possibly) the record holder without a single promotion nor a single sick day in a fifty year career - at least for those who can remember - who's spare time is taken up as the Chairmen of the Unpublished People's Poet Society (UPPS). In a chance meeting, the poets welcome Virgil Blaine as its newest member. Walter Higgins otherwise known as Forward Slash, joins the UPPS not long after. Unbeknown to the poets, Slash is on a secret mission for the Prime Minister himself no less, to recruit a shy person because the overconfidents had lost the vote. Virgil Blaine is just the man and so begins a disastrous journey that takes him to the very top.