In this sequel Lee leaves the security of his Cotswold village of Slad in Gloucestershire to start a new life, at the same time embarking on an epic journey on foot.

He scrapes together a living by playing his violin outside cafés, and sleeps at night in his blanket under the open sky or in cheap, rough posadas.

For a year he tramps through Spain, from Vigo in the north to the south coast, where he is trapped by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

By August 1935 he reaches Toledo, where he has a meeting with the South African poet Roy Campbell and his family, whom he comes across while playing his violin.

He decides to turn west and follow the Guadalquivir, adding several months to his journey, and taking him to the sea in a roundabout way.

He decides to stick to his plan to follow the coast round Spain, and sets off for Málaga, stopping in Gibraltar.

Lee and his friend Manolo, the hotel's waiter, drink in the local bar alongside the other villagers.

In the middle of May there is a strike and the peasants come in from the countryside to lend their support, as the village splits between Fascists and Communists.

The epilogue describes Lee's return to his family home in Gloucestershire and his desire to help his comrades in Spain.

McFarlane praises Lee's use of metaphor and argues that the "rose-tinted" descriptions in Cider with Rosie are replaced by "very dark passages".