Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 conversations hes overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad and writes a 1942 piece about him, Professor Seagull, bringing Gould some celebrity and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club hes often crashed. Goulds touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat lead to a breakup, but the two Joes stay in touch until Goulds death and Mitchells unveiling of the secret.