Groucho Marx has said, "I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member," essentially the protagonist's credo at the outset of Downtime. Downtime is a layman's vision of the approaching apocalypse. This dark comic tale is seen through the eyes of hapless Melford Blintze, a literate, sensitive, and timid man who is tormented by private insecurities and the excesses of a vulgar society going to hell. Blintze doesn't believe the end is near; he believes that it's in progress. The setting of the novel is the very near future. Terrorists have taken over an ICBM missile base. During this crisis, oddly kept at an emotional distance by Mel's urban society, Mel is unwittingly involved in a mad terrorist plot by his crazed economics professor. As the tension of approaching Doomsday mounts, Mary, an attractive Washington agent, rescues Mel not only from the terrorists, but also from his lack of self-respect.