When a secret agent is eaten by a shark in a telephone box, ace spy Bob Saint-Clair is sent on a mission to Mexico, to confront his arch-enemy Karpof, assisted by his beautiful partner Tatiana…  Thus begins the latest pulp fiction novel by François Merlin, a lonely middle-aged writer who dreams of having a love affair with his neighbour Christine and of getting his revenge on his odious publisher Charron – fantasies which he plays out in his novels.  One day, Christine borrows some of Merlin’s books and becomes obsessed with his fiction, finding plenty of material for her sociology thesis.  Believing that she prefers his fictional hero to him, Merlin decides to destroy his fictional alter-ego Bob Saint-Clair...