In this delightful, fast moving and often humorous tale, Guyanese-Canadian writer Kennard Ramphal transports the reader to the village of Canal Number 2 Polder in British Guiana as it's about to achieve nationhood from Britain. SLIPPERY OCHRO and his wife PHULMATTIE, notorious for their free-wheeling and cunning lifestyle, are about to inveigle their way into the lives of retirees MOHABIR and his wife DULARIE, who are content to live out their existence in peace, enjoying the fruits of their labour. Little do they know that Slippery and his wife have other plans for them.

Ramphal provides a perceptive backdrop into the lives of workers and plantation life in sugar estates in Guyana, along with a pervasive "rum culture" existing in the rural areas during the 60's when this novel is set.