A frustrated shipper of rare books at a Boston bookstore (who refers to himself as "The Egotourist") returns to his parents' suburban New Jersey home to work temporary jobs and earn enough money to take a hundred buses to Cuzco, Peru. Alternating among essays, dialogues, and dramatized scenes, Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World rolls with the Egotourist's restlessness as he tells of long-distance love, Black Sabbath cover bands, flirtatious administrative assistants, minotauric secretaries, and camaraderie in copy centers, all of it heading toward a hard-earned trip south of the border. Ultimately, the Egotourist discovers that what he sought in far-flung destinations is just as easily found in the unexpected exoticism of home.