 It follows the activities of a cast of mostly upper-class British characters, some of them reintroduced from Waugh's earlier satirical novels "Decline and Fall", "Vile Bodies", and "Black Mischief", Facing first the dormant conflict of the Phoney War and then the cataclysmic events of 1940, peacetime lives of boredom and frivolity give way to a sense of purpose and solidarity.At the country estate of Malfrey, Barbara Sothill loses her servants, who go off to work in factories, and her husband, who rejoins his reserve regiment.As district billeting officer, she has to find accommodation for evacuees.