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...