The Right Honourable Leslie Titmuss (who is now Secretary of State for Housing, Ecological Affairs and Planning) sets his cap at the beautiful widow Jenny Sidonia. Meanwhile, secret plans are being made which will change the Rapstone valley for ever.

When Titmuss fails to win Jenny Sidonia by amorous means, he finds he can get her attention by buying the beautiful Rapstone Manor for them to live in. This plan works, Jenny surrenders, and the honeymoon is spent at the Manor. Developers are busy planning a new community in the landscape at Fallowfield, with mock-Georgian shopping malls and condominiums for commuters. Jenny is horrified, and Titmuss is the man who could stop it all.

In the heat of the battle between Rapstone's traditionalists and its progressives, Titmuss faces a hard dilemma. Will he go back on his pro-development principles, or will he write off the things he values most? The consummate politician's answer is to devise a plan of breathtaking deviousness and dishonesty, one which he believes will square the circle.