About the title
Phil Loder is a twice-divorced, disillusioned economics professor at Harvard, tired of life and stuck on a low salary. Still, even he has a dream - to own a big house with land of his own. But that dream seems unattainable, since his salary will never be enough for such a home. One day Phil comes across an interesting ad: an elderly widow with no heirs is willing to sell her estate for next to nothing. Such an opportunity comes along only once - and Phil jumps at it immediately, buying the house. Only soon he realizes that the low price was no accident, and the deal was full of hidden catches.