Much of the book is a build-up to the Extraordinary General Meeting which will decide on the sale, which takes place at the family estate at Garbadale in Sutherland.

His current girlfriend, mathematician Verushka Graef, is a hillwalker, and near the end of the book Alban goes for a walk in the hills to think.

Significant portions of the action are set in California, Singapore and Hong Kong, as McGill reminisces about his world travels during his gap year.

Banks takes the opportunity, as in Dead Air and Raw Spirit, to make points about the morality and wisdom of the War on Terrorism, when McGill meets representatives of the American capitalists who wish to acquire the family game symbolising the British Empire.

The book has intermittent contributions from McGill's friend and ex-colleague Tango, who lives in a council estate in Perth, Scotland.