Taking his backdoor as a starting point, Joseph Horgan explores the natural world. The book spans one autumn and one winter, framed by the departure of the swallows from the author's backyard and concluding with their return. In between, Horgan travels on foot or by bicycle along some still-quiet country lanes of 21st-century rural Ireland. Mingling his observations and thoughts with references from seventh-century poetry to modern geological studies, he encourages us to look again at nature around us and to respect and protect it.