After several decades in lower-lower middle-management at Blackingly Borough Council, Aubrey Annersley feels in need of a well-deserved rest; he doesn’t get one. Instead, he joins up with a team of somewhat-eccentric septuagenarians, and finds himself trying to answer life’s oldest questions, find the source of happiness, discover the meaning of life, and investigate various other supposedly-related matters, all aided by a dreadful sense of humour, and a love of house- work. A chance meeting with a rather Gothic-looking IT expert, plus a strange, remote friendship with a bibulous man-of-the-world, ensure that Aubrey’s retirement becomes nothing like that which he had hoped for.