One of Douglas Adams' most endearing creations in The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul as well as the increasingly decrepit and shambolic detective Dirk Gently is his Holistic Navigation system - which consists of Dirk going places by following cars that look as if they know where they are going. The result is that he seldom ends up where he wants to go but quite often where he needs to be.

The resulting collision in this case with Kate Schechter, an American Journalist on the trail of Thor The God Of Thunder, means that Dirk can at last begin to piece together the puzzle which began with the murder of a client and has uncovered the possibility that Odin, Ancient Father of the Norse Gods is still alive - no longer worshipped by millions but ignored and left destitute, and lately persuaded by the unsavoury goblin Toe Rag to trade his immortality for the comforts of a warm bed and 24-hour nursing care at the Woodshead Clinic.

Odin has fallen into the hands of the Draycotts, an unscrupulous advertising executive and her husband, who plan to use their new immortality and godlike powers without let or hindrance - especially from a Holistic Detective with a broken nose, whose ex-secretary has been placed under a curse that has turned her into a vending machine, which his son Thor, the God Of Thunder has delivered to the building in which Kate has rented an apartment from her landlord, Neil Sharp.

Thor waits for Kate to arrive home and help him get the bits of floorboard off his back which are the consequence of having been superglued to a warehouse by Toe Rag. Meanwhile Dirk returns home to (a) crash into the Draycotts' car in a less successful bit of Holistic Navigation) and (b) find a new nemesis waiting on his doorstep - the mysterious eagle that has been attacking perfectly innocent Holistic Detectives since Episode Two.