Raphael Bell, is an old-style national school teacher who has devoted his life to upholding his school's rigorous core curriculum. By the late 1960s, however, parents and students have begun to question Bell's inflexibilty on such issues as corporal punishment and mandatory school prayer. Bell attributes all such critism to the baleful influence of television, rock music, and American movies.
His rage finally finds a focus in Malachy Dudgeon, a first-year teacher who seems to embody all the worst features of the counterculture. The two are soon locked in a power struggle that can only end in disaster. As with The Butcher Boy, McCabe demonstrates his remarkable command of the vernaular and an uncanny ability to pinpoint the exact moment when ordinary minds take flight into madness.