Stories and poems relate the misadventures of Archy, the literary cockroach, and his feline friend Mehitabel.

A series of free-verse poems written from the view point of a cockroach presents comments on society, politics, and pretensions.

"Archy and Mehitabel (styled as archy and mehitabel) is the title of a series of newspaper columns written by Don Marquis beginning in 1916. Written as fictional social commentary and intended as a space-filler to allow Marquis to meet the challenge of writing a daily newspaper column six days a week, archy and mehitabel is Marquis' most famous work. Collections of these stories are still sold in print today. The published editions of these stories were originally illustrated by George Herriman, the creator and illustrator of Krazy Kat."