Alan Holly has a secret ambition. After a life of suburban rectitude, he sets out one morning from Land's End to walk the length of his native land; a Britain he has never known.

His boots are new, his health uncertain, he has not walked more than a dozen miles in his life. His progress is overseen by far flung family and friends with mixed feelings of loyalty, exasperation and growing anxiety. As the journey assumes epic proportions, Alan's arbitrary tenacity and courage has a decisive impact on the lives of those he meets and the family he has left behind.