When Polly and Theo Noble book the Casa Luna for their summer holiday they plan a civilised Anglo-American house-party with Theo's brother Daniel, his girlfriend, and Polly's old schoolfriend. But the Casa Luna is a place where strange things happen and anyone who lives there risks unexpected joys and sorrows.

Knotshead is a school catering for the children of the rich, famous, liberal - and deluded. With its progressive curriculum, complacent staff and beautiful grounds, it looks like Paradise. But the clever, the odd and the bookish are relentlessly persecuted as pupils make their own rules in a bubble of privilege and prejudice. When Alice, the Headmaster's intellectual step-daughter, and the much-expelled American millionaire Winthrop T Sheen join forces against the school bully, Grub Viner, a gifted pianist and school "joker", has to choose between love and loyalty, and black comedy...