Nicholas Cutler is a smart but self-destructive novelist who used to be famous and is now stuck teaching English at a working class high school to teens who are addicted to their iPhones. After writing a trashy zombie story, he gets the attention of publishers again, and they're willing to give him a second chance if he can show he's changed. But what could have been the best week of his life turns into chaos, and he has to put other people's needs ahead of his own.