Rob Fleming is a neurotic ordinary-joe of a man who owns a vinyl record store in North London. His passion is for eighties pop music and he tends to see everything in terms of charts and countdowns. Rob's obsession is for mix-tapes, of which he owns over a thousand. Rob does not understand women, but has dated a lot of them, most of whom he has cheated on, prompting a nasty break-up and a great deal of bitterness. Rob's most recent girlfriend, Laura, has just dumped him for this reason.
This prompts an unprecedented amount of navel-gazing for Rob, who, true to form, creates a top five rundown of his top five worst break-ups ever. In creating this list, he starts to re-examine his relationships, and the way in which he contributed to their demise. He also learns that Laura has begun a relationship with a much older man, who comes to the store to politely ask him to stop calling Laura, whom he has been trying to reach out to because he misses her, and also because he wants to tell her about his personal epiphany that has inspired him to look inward and live a more purposeful life. Despite running many possible scenarios through his head about how he will react to Laura's new flame, Rob eventually lets him say his piece and leave without responding or reacting.
When Rob learns that Laura's father has passed away, he is deeply affected by this because the two men always got along well, and Laura's father actually liked Rob a great deal. He decides to go to the funeral, where he and Laura reconnect. He realizes that he had never really treated Laura with any sense of commitment at all. Rob has always been a commitment-phobe and has attributed this to a fear of death, which is what he believes his real problem to be. This has been the case in all his relationships, and in his mind it explains why he has always had such difficulty being faithful. It also dawns on him that by refusing to commit to Laura, he has also been failing to commit to himself. His persistence with Laura pays off, and she sees a real change in him that gives her hope, especially when her resistance is low after the death of her father.
Laura and Rob move in together again,, and Rob gives Laura what is in his mind the greatest sign of his commitment yet; he makes her a mix tape, all of his own, and it is going to be perfect.
