It's 1974. Archie Jones is one of life's great losers. Even his attempt to kill himself is foiled by a passing butcher. The return of his old war comrade, Samad Iqbal, brings back a secret Archie has been trying to forget, and Samad's wedding to a feisty girl half his age makes lonely Archie feel even worse. Convinced that he 'picked up the wrong life in the cloakroom of existence', Archie is not expecting a sudden diversion to a funkier place. But on New Year's Eve, a chance encounter at a wild party changes everything.