John winds up in the backwards, illogical land of Streel through which he must journey to battle the Freel that rules the land.
A con man in the midst of a failed swindle is forced to sleep in one of the townsfolk's houses next to a wine cellar. He wakes up in the land of Streel, where the Freel has rule. As he journeys through Streel to fight the Freel, led by a talking prairie dog, a scribe with two left arms and an outcast fox who changes his name constantly, he is introduced to the formalized (although infrequently used) language of Streel known as Romsportalfretag. His journey continues and he must overcome losing one of his dimensions, escaping lexically picky ants, people who speak with audibly multiple punctuation, the studious, armless Mister Arveltras, and spending time on the strangely diverse streets of the town of the Gredules, all while searching for the love of a woman that he has seen in a way that feels right to him. As John continues through Streel, he goes about inventing his own language and earning his armor and a sword with which to fight the Freel all whilst trying to understand his own mind and earn the love of a woman that he meets in the strange land.