A group of Catholic students navigates the transition from the rigid moral landscape of the 1950s to the social upheaval of the 1970s. The protagonists, including Polly, Dennis, Angela, and Adrian, seek to reconcile their traditional religious upbringing with the emergence of the permissive society. They face internal conflicts regarding faith, sexuality, and identity as the Catholic Church undergoes significant institutional shifts. The narrative employs a multi-perspective framework to track the characters' individual trajectories through these decades of rapid cultural change.

Readers frequently highlight the balance between the author's sharp, comic wit and the underlying sense of melancholy regarding the characters' lost certainties. Discussion often centers on the effectiveness of the novel's structure in capturing the seismic shifts in British Catholic life during the mid-twentieth century. Critics often note the author's ability to maintain a neutral, observational tone while dissecting the absurdity of institutional change. The work is widely regarded for its precise character studies and its ability to ground large-scale cultural transitions in the intimate, often awkward experiences of its protagonists.