Peter MacAulay sits down to write his will. The process sets in motion a compulsive series of reflections: a history of his own lifetime and a subjective account of how key events in the post-war world filter through to his home, Stornoway. He reveals his passions for history, engines and fish, and witnesses changing times and things that don't change in the Hebrides. The novel is driven by its idiosyncratic narrator, but with counterpoints from people he engages with his father, mother, wife, daughter, friends. It's all about stories, a litany of small histories witnessed during one very individual lifetime.