Charlie can pretend to be anything. <br> <br>To escape his mundane life, he has created multiple lives. In each one he plays a different character. Each character is independent and unrelated to the others, or so he thinks. <br> <br>When he stumbles upon a life he actually wants – one that is good and meaningful – he discovers that life is not pretend. Some of the people in his lives are very real and extremely dangerous. <br> <br>For instance, the Brotherhood of Panhandlers, an anarchist group of homeless men that Charlie is a member of. Led by a madman, the Brotherhood is willing to destroy Charlie and everyone close to him to carry out their plans. <br> <br>Beneath the Plastic is the dark, hilarious, and oddly endearing debut novel by Scott Allison.