Gervase Phinn now in his fourth year as a schools inspector continues to visit schools within his area of Yorkshire, from the little primary schools in the Yorkshire Dales to the inner-city schools with their often mulish adolescent pupils At least he can leave school affairs behind him as he goes to home to his wife Christine, who is expecting their first child That, is until their own village school is threatened with closure and Gervase finds himself on the oppoiste side of the argument from Christine