'Suddenly he has a view of himself from above, a figure sitting on this expanse of kitchen floor unable to protect what dignity he has left, and not really concerned about doing so. Sandford is looking down on him from his perch on the chair, shooting down his words with words of his own. He could not explain it, but a balance seems to have been achieved… A strange fascination has arisen in him. He wants to see where this is going.' Pompous, pampered Maurice thinks he has his life sorted out. But when he meets a stranger at the funeral of his maiden aunt, he is taken on a bizarre journey of self-discovery that sends him to places people like him are not supposed to go. Angus Gaunt's nasty little novel is about a man who stumbles towards a kind of redemption as he absents himself from society.