Cameron Smith, a high school slacker from Texas living a somewhat aimless life. His father is a college physics professor; his mother is a community college English teacher. Cameron’s life starts to spiral out of control when he is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant BSE, a slowly progressive fatal disease (also known as mad cow disease),for which there is no cure. But he is visited in the hospital by Dulcie, an angel with pink hair who wears boots and spray paints her wings; she tells him that he can possibly save his life, but only by first finding Dr. X, a time traveling physicist. Unconvinced at first by Dulcie’s suggestion, Cameron changes his mind when he is attacked by fire giants and a mysterious Wizard of Reckoning—a masked figure wearing a silver space suit who is intent on killing him.

Cameron sneaks out of the hospital with his roommate and high school classmate, Gonzo, a video game playing dwarf with an overprotective mother on a quest that takes them from Texas to New Orleans and into Florida, all the while pursued by the Wizard of Reckoning and his fire giants.

Throughout the novel it is uncertain if Cameron is actually undertaking this journey, or if he is simply imagining it because of this CJ disease.