After serving jail time, inconsequential car salesman Bernie meets Carrie, a woman who pushes him to go to New York to find the serial rapist Cabot Wright, just released from prison himself. Cabot, she says, will provide him prime material for writing the Great American Novel. From then on Bernie finds himself involved in a hilarious series of vicissitudes and absurd situations in the company of the rapist, of an ambitious editor, and of Zoe Bickle, his former neighbor s wife who, happening to be in New York, decides out of the kindness of her heart to help him write his risky masterpiece."Luego de haber estado en la carcel, el don nadie y vendedor de coches Bernie conoce a Carrie, una mujer quien lo impulsa a ir a Nueva York para buscar al celebre violador en serie Cabot Wright, recien devuelto a la libertad. Cabot, segun ella, le proporcionara un material de primera para escribir la Gran Novela Americana. A partir de ahi Bernie se vera envuelto en una serie desternillante de peripecias y situaciones absurdas en compania del violador, de un ambicioso editor y de Zoe Bickle, la mujer de su vecino de Chicago que, al encontrarse casualmente en Nueva York, decide por compasion echarle una mano con la redaccion de su arriesgada obra maestra.""