A SARDINE ON VACATION collects 53 short essays, stories, dialogues, character sketches, and miscellaneous musings. Inspired by Flann O'Brien's Myles columns in the Dublin Times, the Sardine scornfully confronts and avoids the newspaper-reading Public who cannot quite figure out what the Sardine represents. Ultimately, the Sardine's success leads one man to take it up on himself to hunt down and unmask the Sardine.