After being saved from certain death during the demolition of the Earth, Arthur Dent now faces a hopeless choice between meeting certain death in the vacuum of space or finding something pleasant to say about Vogon poetry.

After failing to please Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz on the matter of his poetry, Arthur and Ford are thrown out of the ship. However, they escape death when they are picked up a space ship with the new Infinite Improbability Drive.

To add to the increasing levels of improbability, the ship in question, the Heart of Gold was stolen by Ford's semi-cousin and the Galactic President, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Also on board is Trillian (Tricia McMillan), a woman that Arthur once met at a party in Islington, but who ended up going with Zaphod, thus escaping Earth before it got demolished.