January 1974. In the dying days of General Franco's dictatorship Michael Giddings travels from a small town deep in rural England to Madrid to take up a post teaching English to the locals at a private language institute. He plans to stay for six months before going up to university in Oxford. His experiences with a colourful cast of characters as he adapts to his new life form an hilarious narrative: strange and eccentric pupils, flatmates and new acquaintances populate his story against the backdrop of a society on the brink of change -all set amid the varied landscapes of Spain. He discovers not only much about himself and his ability to survive alone but also about the adult world which he has now joined - a world where not everything can be taken at face value and complicated emotions and relationships intrude into his simple and naïve world picture.