Armed with a finished memoir and a hotshot agent, aspiring writer Zach Sullivan is convinced his big break is just around the corner. Until then, he takes a job teaching at the Bichy Bee English Institute in the East Asian island nation of Sukhan.
 
Between bouts of relentless savaging by imps in the classroom, he navigates the kaleidoscopic side streets of the capital, Paigan, along with the strange ways of his newfound home. Zach spends his carefree days and nights in a manic blur—cruising on his 100cc Zhiwoon Super City Chipmunk scooter, downing dumplings, watching the Paigan Cloud Bank Bugbears baseball team, and carousing with his fellow degenerate expats, all while awash in an ocean of Beer Lai Lai, Sukhan’s national brew.
 
However, just when he thinks he’s perfected the art of misbehaving abroad, things go south, and he eventually finds himself banged up in Sukhan’s toughest prison: National Correctional Facility Number 4, nicknamed “the Cuttlefish.”