Set in the New Zealand of the 1960s and 1970s, it evokes a vanished world and a colourful cast of characters. Its story summits in a new home with all mod cons, in a marital crisis over a wall-to-wall shag pile. The writing was already on the wall for the suburb. The future came to the cul de sac.

The book is a collaboration between writer and former Whanganui resident and teacher Charles Bisley, local artist Michael Haggie, and designer Dan Bisley. Charles and Michael met as part of a group of friends that included Joanna Paul.