Noah is a 500-year-old winemaker with a comfortable life who only wants to be left alone to enjoy his days making wine. But a visit from Yahweh turns his world upside down when he is commanded to build an ark. Thus begins The Flud, a novel of irreverent humor. A lack of ark building skill and the requirement of capturing thousands of animals adds to Noah's anxiety, but what fills him with dread is the task of capturing the koheleh, the fastest and deadliest creature on the planet. Along the way a series of wild misadventures ensues involving Bronze Age gay bars, ark consultants, stowaways, an insane priest, a prophetic child, and a neurotic mule. Noah does battle with manure control systems, escaping hippos, and dung-throwing apes, but faces his biggest challenge in a climactic confrontation with Yahweh.