Retiree, and new dad, Aubrey Annersley, has become a bit jaded — journalists no longer ask him about "newly married life in one's later-60s", and other mums in the park now know full well that he's the father, not the grandfather, albeit (so the papers had said) a rather more financially-fortunate one than most former lower-lower-middle management veterans from Blackingly Borough Council. Wife Lupin proposes he does something completely different, namely, go on a coach holiday, but… alone! And so he does… and while he enjoys his trip, it turns out to be rather more than he had bargained for (and some of his fellow-travellers turn out to be… not quite what he'd anticipated); but he does encounter a few life-changing ideas…