[1] The book begins with the Conservative leadership contest of 1963, following the resignation of Harold Macmillan, which turned into a fight between his deputy Rab Butler and the Earl of Home, the aristocratic dark horse.

A dismayed Iain Macleod, the modernising chairman of the party, refused to serve in Home's Cabinet and alleged that the leadership had been stitched up by a "Magic Circle" of Old Etonians.

[2] Next comes a history of the party from its 17th-century beginnings, at the time of the Restoration, followed by an account of the Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath years and Britain's trials and tribulations of the 1970s, which culminated in the election of Margaret Thatcher's first government in 1979.

Wheatcroft seeks to explain this decline by offering factors long discussed by commentators: internal splits over Britain's place in Europe, political sleaze, a fundamental lack of ideology and a growing desire in the country for change after eighteen years of Conservative rule, coinciding with Tony Blair's "brilliant cynical sincerity".

[5] The book's front cover shows the last Conservative prime minister, John Major, batting in a game of cricket, at the moment of being clean bowled (his wicket demolished).