The Invention of Lying

In the world which Mark Bellison lives, there is no concept of an untruth. A screenwriter, Mark gets fired partly because he is tasked with writing about the depressing 14th century - the black plague century - about which no one wants to watch a lecturer talk. But in general, Mark comes from a defective gene pool, which has resulted in him being physically unappealing and generally a loser. As his life is headed further and further into despair, he stumbles across a concept which basically saves his life but which has no name, but what you and I know as a lie. Everyone believes whatever he says because everything is the truth. He finds that these lies not only result in him getting almost everything he wants - which includes getting his job back while upstaging his nemesis Brad Kessler - but also solve many of the problems others face due to the incessant truths they are told. But Mark, solely out of compassion, tells one lie - in reality an uncertainty since he can't prove or not prove what he said - that opens a can of worms he seems unable to close. But the one thing he really wants - the love of Anna McDoogles, a beautiful woman who is generally out of his league - is the one thing he wants only if she wants it too in real terms. Although Anna does end up falling in love with many aspects of Mark, she can't get over what she believes is the primary criterion for her life match, namely the genes of an attractive person, like Brad. Will Mark's new world of lies ultimately make him happy?