Reformed computer hacker Brian Mercer hits the dotcom jackpot and retires to a life of ease on Lake Charlevoix, only to watch his portfolio tank in the market crash.  Brian reenters the workforce but finds that his computer programming skills are no longer in demand.  He is forced to take a series of absurd and unrewarding jobs and encounters a cast of oddball characters.  Along the way he falls in love with Miiko, a Japanese musician with an odd sexual attraction for her cello.  Miiko introduces Brian to Grampa Sam who claims to have discovered a method of divining the movement of stock prices using the I Ching.  With Grampa Sam's help, Brian rebuilds his tattered stock portfolio and again rolls in the dough -- until his stock trading activity comes to the attention of the FBI.