When Matthew is forced to move away from the big city, following his parent's divorce, he is not expecting to enjoy it much. But the increasing curtailment of local services makes it even worse than he had thought. The locals don' help - they are, it seems, prepared to do acts of great desperation to get their own way - and the lodger boarding in his house seems to be particularly suspicious. Is Matthew really surrounded by sinister and unpleasant rural types? How much is he making up? Just what is everyone up to?