Mickey is your average teenage boy, until he meets 17 year old Hope Randall. Living in what was once an exotic pet shop with a bathtub for a bed, Hope is anything but average. For every member of her family, the onset of puberty seems to bring with it a prophetic vision of the world, which - when Armageddon fails to materialise - invariably tips the expectant prophet over the edge. So far, Hope is a late developer and has yet to receive her revelation. Instead, she picks a date at random, has it 'confirmed' by the best-before date on a batch of ramen noodles, and begins to wait for the worst. In the meantime, Mickey is falling helplessly in love. But what kind of future can you have with someone who believes that doomsday looms? Moving between Canada and Japan, between solid ground and flights of the surreal, Apocalypse for Beginners is the lovely, surprising story of two people travelling from friendship to romance, and from separation to the possibility of reunion.