On the day after Hitler's annexation of Austria and little more than a year before the start of World War 2, Richard Preston interviews for a post as head of a famous but crumbling British public school and gets the job despite never being allowed to answer a question. But his problems are just beginning when he struggles with his own war memories, an abusive or apathetic staff, a crooked bursar, a coup by fascist prefects, harassed juniors, offended royals, tumbling frescoes, decaying buildings, his daughters' romantic entanglements, and the realisation that amidst a deteriorating international situation he is losing his own fight with a fate where everything he touches turns to farce.