This is the true, surprising story of an old white man who was kicked out of the top of the American Establishment, by chance met a young African-American woman from a completely different background, and came to learn what is important in life. He was born into privilege on the affluent Upper East Side of Manhattan, she into poverty in the projects in Brooklyn. He once had a high-powered advertising job and now had nothing; she came from the streets and now had succeeded — so much so that she was able to offer a stranger a chance to save himself.

This is my story, and like all surprising stories, it starts with an accident

— From "How Starbucks Saved My Life"

NEW YORK — For 25 years, he was known as Michael Gates Gill, but that was when he was an advertising executive, a self-described "master of the universe" who put his job first, his wife and four children second.

Then he was fired. He was 53, replaced by someone, he says, "younger and cheaper."

These days, at 67, he's simply Mike, the friendly barista at a Starbucks in suburban New York. He's happy, he says, making lattes and cleaning the bathroom.

Gill, the Yale-educated son of writer Brendan Gill ("Here at the New Yorker"), has written an improbable memoir: "How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else" (Gotham, $23).

Well, not quite like everyone. Universal Pictures bought the film rights before the book was even finished. Gus Van Sant is to direct. Tom Hanks may play Gill.

"It's like 'Alice in Wonderland,' " Gill says, sipping an iced venti latte.

The branch manager who hired him three years ago also is there. Tiffany Edwards, 33, recalls when Gill first told her he was writing a book, "I said, 'Whatever.' Now, we're so proud."

The book is mostly about the joy of doing a job he likes and how he feels more respect at Starbucks than he did as a creative director at J. Walter Thompson, the giant advertising firm.

It also deals with the low points of his life, his divorce and brain tumor. The book has a religious, born-again feel to it. Gill agrees and says "It's spiritual."

Gill was nearly broke four years ago when he met Edwards, who helped inspire a composite character named Crystal in the book. Edwards is the daughter of immigrants from Trinidad.

His post-Thompson consulting business had faded. He'd recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor. His wife had divorced him after Gill confessed he and his girlfriend were about to have a baby.

He took the job out of desperation. He needed health insurance for himself and his new son. What he found, he says, was self-respect and a new sense of happiness. But "until I started writing, I didn't realize why I was happy."

As he made the transition "from a member of the ruling class to a member of the serving class," he came to appreciate Edwards' skills as a manager. She is a much better boss than he had ever been, he says.

The book takes some liberties with the facts. In addition to composite characters, it compresses time sequences. But Gill says everything about himself, his old and new lives, is "true and honest."

Even now with the book and movie deal — the rights sold for six figures, Variety reported — Gill plans to keep working at Starbucks. He earns about $10.50 an hour.

"I need the interaction," he says. "I need the confidence it's given me, that I can keep up with the other partners who are in their 20s." (In Starbucks jargon, employees are "partners" and customers "guests.")

Gill says the job has given him time to reconnect with his children from his marriage and spend time with his youngest.

He writes that his girlfriend lost interest in him when she discovered he wasn't rich.

What would his father, who died in 1997 and had been a friend of Jackie Onassis and Brooke Astor, think of the book?

"I'm sure he'd say it could have been written better. He was a critic and a beautiful writer. But I think he'd be proud."