It is the fifth of his novels set on the continent of Zamonia, and as in the earlier Ensel and Krete and The City of Dreaming Books, Moers purports to be acting merely as the translator of a work by the Zamonian writer Optimus Yarnspinner.

The novel is described on the title page as 'a culinary fairy tale', reflecting the importance within the story of the theme of cooking and eating.

The novel's other main character is Echo, a Crat (an animal identical to a cat except that it can speak all languages, has near perfect memory and two livers).

The plan fails, and Izanuela is killed, but in revenge the living houses of the Uggly destroy Ghoolion's castle.

In the second afterword, only found in the German edition, Moers informs the reader of the troubles which he had translating Yarnspinner's work, which dates from his 'hypochondriac' phase; Moers claims to have reduced the length of the book by some 700 pages through the elimination of Yarnspinner's lengthy discussion of his own physical condition.