Plot Summary

Nearly fifty years after his one successful novel "Atomic Autumn", Harris Shaw is a cranky old man who drinks and smokes and lives alone with his cat in Westchester, New York. He is trying to write another novel on his typewriter but he keeps messing up and throwing out numerous bad pages. He is distracted by phone calls and eventually curses at whoever is calling. Finally, he throws the phone out the window.Lucy Stanbridge inherited a publishing business from her father Joseph but it is not doing well. Rachel reads her a bad review of a book her company published that is compared to Harry Potter. Lucy is not too concerned about what the New York Times critic thinks, since young people don't read the Times. Rachel shows Lucy a young girl attacking the book in an online video. Jack, who Joseph considered the son he never had, is trying to buy the struggling company and promising to keep the company the way it is. Lucy does not want to sell.Lucy and Rachel look at what they have, to see if any of their authors can save the company. They have nothing to compare to Drew Davis, who is the hot author right now. Finally, they realize that according to the contract he signed, Harris Shaw owes the company one more book. They cannot get through on the phone, so they end up driving through the snow to Westchester.Is Harris even still alive? The women enter the house, which is not locked, and are greeted by a large gun. Lucy and Rachel eventually manage to explain to Harris that he owes them a book. Harris angrily tells them he is old and can't possibly help them. The women leave but Harris has completed a manuscript. He debates about whether to burn it, then decides to burn an envelope with a notice of foreclosure.As Lucy prepares to sign the papers to turn her company over to Jack, there is a commotion outside. Harris is struggling to walk across the street as drivers have to stop or dodge him as he curses them. He has the manuscript that Lucy needs to save her company, "The Future is X-Rated". It is a book about the last man and woman on Earth. Lucy gets rid of Jack and tells Harris what he has to do. The contract states that Harris must go on a tour to promote the book, or Lucy can edit his words. Harris angrily refuses to let any of his words be changed and he doesn't want to tour either. Nevertheless, he must go on tour.With the new book published, Lucy and Harris make their first appearance. But Harris doesn't do anything to help the book sell. In fact, with others watching, he physically attacks the New York Times book critic Halpren Nolan, who doesn't care for the book and has Harris arrested. Few sales are made and it is looking like the book will be a failure, meaning the same fate for the company. There is little interest in Harris making any more appearances. Furthermore, the next time Jack makes an offer, he is willing to pay less.Later, Lucy realizes a bar in Boston was a favorite of Harris and she able to get the bar to agree to an appearance. Harris is supposedly going to read from the book, but instead he says something offensive which the audience loves. Lucy thinks he should do more to get the audience interested. No one wants to buy the book, but one person asks about t-shirts. There aren't any, but Lucy has t-shirts printed and soon that's all she can sell.Lucy gets another idea. If Harris won't read from the book, she can put videos online of ordinary people reading the words. At last, the book is selling, and Lucy and Harris begin traveling to a series of locations where they stay in cheap motels. Rachel runs things back at the publishing company, keeps in contact with Lucy, and is shown once taking care of Harris' cat. In a later scene Lucy brings the cat in a carrier to one of the bookstores.At one motel with heart-shaped bathtubs, Lucy and Harris get in an argument.Harris is a big hit and every appearance generates interest. There is a billboard with his photo and an offensive quote. Eventually, Harris is booked on "The Tonight Show".Later Judy and Harris have a nice conversation. Harris was married but won't say why he no longer is.Before they are about to leave for the national TV appearance Lucy gets a phone call with bad news. They will have to make a stop on the way. Judy stops at a large mansion and Harris is supposed to stay in the car, which of course he doesn't. The mansion is actually a nursing home where Joseph is living. Lucy is shown where Joseph wrote on the wall. Joseph's mind is pretty much gone otherwise. Harris, who is mistaken for a resident, gets very angry when he sees what Joseph wrote.Harris says Joseph stole from him. Those were his words, but his wife Elizabeth was pregnant, and he didn't have the money to do anything about the situation. The late night TV appearance never happens.The company is saved and Drew Davis is even interested in moving there from her old publisher.Harris is shown walking in the rain. He walks into a bookstore where his books are on display and sets them on fire.Lucy visits Harris in the hospital. Then she goes to his house and straightens up. but when it is time for Harris to go home, Lucy is told there are so many things wrong with him that he won't live much longer. Lucy takes Harris home and with Rachel's help starts taking care of him. Harris explains that Elizabeth's baby died soon after it was born, and Elizabeth didn't last much longer. They scatter her ashes in her favorite place on the property.Mr. Olson comes to the door. Harris took out a loan fifteen years earlier and owes $500,000. There will be no more extensions. Lucy refuses to let Harris be thrown out of the one place he has lived most of his life, and the only way she can pay the debt is to sell to Jack.One night Harris goes to his typewriter and starts typing.Having sold the company, Lucy scatters more ashes. It is never stated Harris died, but Lucy finds the letter Harris wrote to her. There is a key and directions to a trunk full of more of Harris' writings.