Dirk Gently's secretary Janice Pearce finally resigns because her pay is hopelessly in arrears. Then his first client in months claims he is being followed on the bus by a hairy, green-eyed, scythe-wielding monster. Faced with such unreasonable and deluded people, Dirk realises it is time to get some normality into his life - and some income. So he takes up reading palms in a tent in a pub beer garden, dressed as an old gypsy woman.

But this is nothing compared to the fate of Odin, Ancient Father of the Norse Gods - no longer worshipped by millions but ignored and left destitute. Persuaded by the unsavoury goblin Toe Rag to trade his immortality for the comforts of a warm bed and 24-hour nursing care, Odin has fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous advertising executive and her husband, Simon and Cynthia Draycott.

Odin's son Thor is desperately looks for a way to save his inheritance, but an attempt to fly to Norway by hammer has resulted in an unfortunate encounter with a pair of RAF jets, scrambled to pursue this large hairy UFO. As only one jet returns home - and a strangely marked eagle soars on a thermal over Sheringham - Thor tries another route to Norway - British Airways.

At Heathrow Terminal 5 Thor meets Kate Schechter, an American journalist who attempts to help him get on a flight but is thwarted both by the Check-In girl - one Janice Pearce in her new job - and the fact that Thor has no passport. The check-in desk explodes as the God Of Thunder loses his temper.

Whilst Dirk reads palms in drag, the client with monster problems is in grave danger - and Janice is about to spend a significant period of her life under a godlike curse as a vending machine. Finally, as Dirk leaves only 5 hours late for his appointment with a client whose life expectancy may not have included the last 4 hours and 59 minutes, the cleaning lady, Elena must deal with his fridge - a fridge so disgusting that it has ceased simply to stand in a corner of Dirk's kitchen but has now begun to actually Lurk.