It is the general view at Eckleton that there never was such a house of slackers as Kay's. The fags run riot, the senior dayroom lacks moral fibre, and no one seems to care much about sport. Fenn, head of house and county cricketer, does his best to impose some discipline but is continually undermined by his house-master, the meddlesome and ineffectual Mr Kay. After the Summer Concert fiasco, Mr Kay resolves to remove Fenn from office and puts his house into special measures, co-opting Kennedy, second prefect of Blackburn's, as reluctant trouble - shooter with a brief to turn the place around. But without the backing of Fenn, and with the whole house hostile towards him, how can he achieve the impossible…? This simple school story, in the hands of the young Wodehouse, becomes a delightful and compelling read.