Percy Brandston and Archibald Prescott are two men who lead lives that are poles apart. One is rich and discontented the other is poor but at peace with himself. One will achieve great happiness and fulfilment the other will die a death too horrible to contemplate. In this novel where stark reality and fantasy are intertwined, the reader is taken on a journey from the corridors of power to a council estate, from England to New Zealand and back again, in the company of a cast of larger-than-life characters, both human and supernatural. And if you thought you knew all there is to know about garden gnomes, you are gravely mistaken...