Whilst Lee is addicted to assorted mind-altering substances, his replacement typewriter, a Clark Nova, becomes a talking insect which tells him to find Dr. He spends his time writing reports concerning his mission these documents, at the insistence of his visiting literary colleagues, are eventually compiled into the titular book. Having inadvertently accomplished his mission, Lee flees to Interzone, located in a city somewhere in North Africa. Shortly afterwards, he accidentally kills her while attempting to shoot a drinking glass off her head to emulate William Tell. Lee returns home to find Joan having sex with Hank, one of his writer friends.
Lee dismisses the beetle's instructions and kills it. Lee comes to believe that he is a secret agent, and his boss, a giant talking beetle, assigns him the mission of killing Joan, who is allegedly an agent of an organization called Interzone Incorporated. Lee is arrested by the police, and he begins hallucinating due to being exposed to the insecticide.
In 1953, Exterminator William Lee finds that his wife Joan is stealing his supply of insecticide to use as a recreational drug.
