Fitz is stuck in Tullybridge, a one horse town in the Scottish Highlands, a place everyone leaves, and only feel obliged to come back at Christmas to tell the people they’ve left behind how well they’re doing away from there. He and his girlfriend Barbara are desperate to get out but his father hasn’t been able to cope alone since his mother deserted them, and he is short of the funds he needs to bribe the authorities so he can get Pop into a retirement home. His friends are no better off: Seany is the local barman, keen to move up in the world by endearing himself to Harry, a big cheese in the (practically Masonic) curling club; and Nellie, who drives a mobile shop, and is losing out to the competition. Desperate, in debt and in trouble, they think their luck may have changed when they come by a nugget of gold, but it’s just the beginning of their problems.