William Wyatt Orser, a socially awkward middle schooler, is a wordsmith who, much to his annoyance, acquired the ironically ungrammatical nickname of "Worser". Worser grew up with his mom, a professor of rhetoric and an introvert just like him, but when his mom had a stroke that left her nonverbal, his Aunt Iris has moved in with her cats, art projects, loud music, and even louder clothes. Feeling lost and overwhelmed, Worser finds respite in the Literary Club - a group of kids from school who share his love of words and meet in a used bookstore. There, Worser realises that the key to making friends is sharing the thing he holds dearest: his Masterwork, the epic word notebook that he has been adding entries to for years. But relationships can be precarious, and it is up to Worser to turn the page in his own story to make something that endures so that he is no longer seen as Worser and earns a new nickname, Worder.