[1] The novel starts in 1909 where Presbyterian minister Jack Mackenzie and his young family arrives from Scotland to Dunedin in New Zealand to replace the Reverend Craigie, who died in trying to save his wife after she fell in a thermal pool at Tikitere.

Jay travelled from New Zealand to London but was then attacked and mugged, he eventually finds "Dunedin" the house inhabited by his grandfathers family where he squats surrounded by other down-and-outs.

"[2]The Publishers Weekly also has its reservations: "Mackay illuminates both the larger moral and social issues that plague London and also the cruelty and pathos beneath the surface of daily life.

As their problems proliferate, the narrative urgency fades and one is left wanting a sparser, deeper work so that other interesting characters like Jay, Minister Mackenzie's bastard son, might live more fully.

She writes: "Plot has never been a central attraction in Mackay's Fiction: she introduces topics, strands of subject-matter and characters, and lets them unravel, sometimes intertwine, often fade away and frequently get dumped.

She is a writer of moments, of sharp touches, who has found as many fervent advocates for her short stories as for her novels...Her preoccupations and style haven't changed much in the course of a thirty-year writing career.