In 1941, New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton develops severe writers block. His neighbor, jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, tries to help, but Barton continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him even further from his task.

As Britain declares war on Germany in September 1939, the RAF's Hornet squadron is in good shape for their upcoming transfer to France. They have been together for a year and are, all in all, good pilots. The squadron has come under the command of Squadron Leader Rex whose predecessor died in a bizarre accident on the ground. One of the pilots, 'Fanny' Barton, come face to face with the reality of war when he learns that the JU-88 he shot down was actually an RAF plane.

Martin compresses the wild and crazy end of the millennium and finds in this piercing novel a sardonic morality tale. Lacey Yeager is an ambitious young art dealer who uses everything at her disposal to advance in the world of the high-end art trade in New York City. After cutting her teeth at Sothebys, she manipulates her way up through Barton Talleys gallery of Very Expensive Paintings, sleeping with patrons, and dodging and indulging in questionable deals, possible felonies, and general skeeviness until she opens her own gallery in Chelsea.