It is 1987 and Digby Sherwood, successful headmaster of Mowberry School has problems: there is his entirely unsuitable, second wife Elizabeth who is half his age; there are difficult members of staff: the elderly eccentric Classics master Harold Avenmore, for instance, has passed his sell-by date and must be got rid of, to say nothing of precocious adolescent boys to be dealt with. When Elizabeth is seduced by the future head boy, a whole train of events is set in motion culminating in a tragedy that will alter Digby's life. Only Martin, his dearest and oldest friend can help him through, but...