In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. Most people believe the universe was created by a god or deity, but the Jartravartids of Viltvodle IV believe that the universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. The Jartravartids, who live in perpetual fear of the time they call the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief, are small blue beings with more than 50 arms each and are therefore unique in being the only race to have invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel.

(the rest is condensed for brevity)

Since no one believed the Jartravartids theory of the origins of the univers, a race of hyper intelligent pan-dimensional beings created a computer called Deep Thought to find the answer to the Ultimate Question - - the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Deepthought churned away from 7.5 million years and came out with the answer 42, so a bigger, more powerful computer had to be built to find out what the actual question was. This computer was called Earth, and was destroyed by the Vogons to make a hyperspace bypass just before it came up with its answer. Only 2 earthlings survived, Arthur Dent and Tricia McMillian. Together with Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of the Galaxy, and Ford Prefect, a researcher for the amazingly popular book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, they wander around for the span of 4 books trying to find the answer.

Now go read the book!