Fred Carton, at the age of twenty-five, is stranded in a small country town surrounded by bowler hats and umbrellas; he owns neither. He steadfastly refuses to catch an early morning train anywhere, let alone to a City office. If the price of living in this world is working for five days out of seven, he is not sure that the place is worth the price. ‘Any fool can go to work,’ he says, ‘Surviving without it is a much more subtle manoeuvre.’ But Fred’s half-hearted attempts to find an alternative fail spectacularly. When he tries to make money, he loses his girlfriend in a poker game… The pressures – and Fred’s sense of alienation – increase. Finally he cracks. He buys a gun…