All Chet Tomlin wants to be is left alone to care for the abandoned and neglected animals at his store. Used Pets. But his obnoxious customers and clinging mother make life miserable. And nothing ever seems to change. On April Fool's day, a gnome-like little man appears on television. He introduces himself as Bob,the Right Hand of God and says that as part of the galactic renewal program, God has accepted an offer from a development company on the planet Xerxes to turn Earth into a theme park. Chet laughs at the prank, but then bizarre things happen. Carrier pigeons return, millions of them, darkening the sky as they hadn't done for over a hundred years. His mother and her entire subdivision are wiped off the face of the earth. And his friends disappear.