Heather Leather is a repressed nonentity until the alcoholic Andrew, the primitive Grotman (alias the aristocratic St Clair), the schizophrenic Greta (alias the aristocratic Mrs St Clair) and a physically advanced oak tree (alias the Sentinel) enter her life. The novel charts Heather's progress from servant to court adviser, MP, and finally Prime Minister, where she has to deal with the extreme generosity of the Americans, who are determined to keep on lending money to countries who cannot pay it back but who also suffer from a peculiar tree phobia (i.e. trees are taking over the planet and...