The time has come for Tom Cox and his four cats--Ralph, Shipley, Roscoe and The Bear--to leave behind their beloved, modernist Norfolk home and move--to a rambling, two-hundred-year-old cottage on the other side of the country. The move to Devon may be a mammoth undertaking, but it signifies a new start for everyone--not least The Bear, who at eighteen years old seems to find a renewed joie de vivre. (Or as much joie as the world's most melancholy cat can ever hope to find). There are new friends--one of whom looks suspiciously doglike--and new adventures in the wild and romantic countryside. There's even a new addition to the family--George, a hippyish cat who seems keen to adopt Tom.