William Pahalarope is an Englishman, in his late forties, who was brought up and schooled in the old ways. Although a genial enough fellow, William has an unfortunate tendency to speak his mind at times when, almost certainly, silence would be more appropriate. Hitherto, his life has been trundling along at a pace and in a direction that suits him; and William has little desire to change the status quo. William's idea of Nirvana is a comfortable chair, a large gin and tonic, and a good book. He sees no point in encouraging the usual vicissitudes of Life to pay him a visit. His niece and nephew, however, have other ideas and enter William in a competition for which the first prize entails going to live in San Francisco for six weeks as part of a cultural experiment. It is only William's good manners that stop him refusing to accept the prize; and his initial distaste and apprehension for his new whereabouts are slowly countered by the extraordinary people he meets, and the even more extraordinary circumstances in which he, unwittingly, finds himself. Life for William will never be the same again.