Jasper and Annie are a pair of jobless no-hopers who have dropped into the cracks between the paving slabs of life. Rather than bothering to climb out, they have embraced their situation and created a life based around doing pretty much nothing. That is, apart from visiting various chronic illness clubs for free refreshments and selling old cassette tapes online. But when a customer leaves negative feedback for a month-old purchase without first making contact, Jasper seeks retribution.

Bernd Tost is a wise old German punk who lives on the top floor and is reputed to have been a Stasi agent during the Cold War. Together, they form the Negative Feedback Retribution Squad and discover they have a talent for striking a comical blow for the little people. When their first mission is a massive success, they decide to advertise their services online. What follows is a series of increasingly elaborate revenge windups involving television celebrities, politicians, pop stars and even the clergy. Until predictably, they bite off far more than they can chew, and things take a sinister turn. All set against the story of Bernd's former life and exactly how he came to be living at the top of a tower block in a little Black Country town called Oldbury.