Now, five years after his retirement he has been called to Nostalgia Block 95 where 'he will be gently and permanently cared for'. But with his connections, Gandy won't be turning up at Nostalgia Block 95. Gandy nips in through the front door of the gents and straight out at the back, under a gap in the electrified fence and out into the wild wood. Well, maybe, Gandy left the back door open hoping that Tom might follow him. On the outside Tom discovers he has a huge extended family, headed by his grandfather's brother, all living and working at Owlbury Hall Farm somewhere on the Welsh border.
Conditions are primitive.
The children wash under the yard pump and help fetch the harvest in by hand. The little community is pestered by Dropouts who live wild in the hills and steal what they need from the farmsteads. But worse than that is the threat of disease and hunger. Life is harder than Tom had ever imagined, but he finds personal satisfaction in the work, something which he has never experienced on the Inside. So here we have two conflicting ways of life and there are people on both sides of the fence who are not happy with their lot.