The sleepy village of Pressan Ambo has a secret. Ten years ago, Francis Crewe disappeared. Every year, a man is chosen by lot to go searching for Francis but none have ever come home. This year, Alan Norman is chosen and accompanied by a surprisingly intelligent dog; he sets out on a journey through 1930’s pre-war Europe. 

A nationalist threat however is on the rise and when Alan returns home to Pressan Ambo, he finds it a very different place to how he left it.

Part madcap adventure, part piercing social satire, Auden and Isherwood’s vivid depiction of a world on the brink of collapse has never seemed so timely.