The fate of the world lies with one man: Bip Plunkerton. Talentless psyentist and frequent drinker at The Empty Goat, young Bip Plunkerton will follow in his father's footsteps as a Volunteer…footsteps that have yet to return from the wilds of the wide world outside. Traverse the harsh weather of the formidable Ice Plains, navigate the Boiling Sea, and suffer the ravaging heat of the Bone Desert. Bip's impossible task, continually thwarted by the semi-corporeal Mr. Random, is to warn the rest of the world of the coming doom of the Massive Ball of Death hurtling through space. Will the last volunteer be any more successful than the first? Will Bip save planet Bersch from a fate set into motion millennia before?