Edgar Hopkins, a gentleman prize poultry farmer and member of the British Lunar Society, learns of an impending cataclysm that threatens to destroy not only his village but possibly all of humanity. Edgar often strikes an absurd, petty figure and the novel's tone is mostly satirical (think Don't Look Up but in the 1930s), yet it is also genuinely moving in its depiction of the true joys of life--companionship, community, nature and home.