It is set in ancient Canaan and Egypt at the time of the Biblical Flood and rooted in the story of Noah's Ark.

Harris won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.

When the Lord God decides to send a flood, he instructs Noah to build an Ark and save his family and the animals.

Noah gives his reprobate son Ham the responsibility of collecting two cats from Kemi, the Black Land (Egypt), and two lions, but Ham passes the task to his neighbour Reuben by promising to persuade Noah to let Reuben and his wife on the Ark.

They meet Thamar, who has camped in the desert to escape the attentions of Ham and has meanwhile rescued a lost lion cub.

Townsend clearly appreciates the humour of the book and its sequels, referring particularly to the "delicate irreverence" with which the story of Noah's Ark is presented.