Bing and Abi work in jobs that involve sitting on exercise bikes and pedalling continuously for an unknown number of hours, with breaks of unknown lengths each day. The ostensible purpose of this is to generate power for other parts of their society. The true purpose is never revealed.
Bing has a great number of "merits", the currency of the society, that he inherited from a relative. Framed as the only possible means of escape from their jobs, there is a talent show in their society that costs merits to enter. Bing overhears Ali singing, and feels that Ali could be a great star if she entered the show.
Bing offers to pay the entrance fee for Ali to appear on the show, but discovers when he makes the transaction that the fee has been raised from ten to fifteen million merits (hence the title). This is nearly all of the merits he has saved, but he pays it anyway. The results do not match the romanticised expectations.
