England in the early 1990s – a prosperous land where unscrupulous financial cowboys could become rich by ignoring rules. One group of those cowboys hit on a really bright idea when they realised that by professing devout Christianity they could set themselves up as investment managers to a large number of trusting, financially naïve and wealthy people.
The frauds they committed were breathtaking in their rage and audacity, but they became too greedy. Their lucrative empire collapsed.
The authorities needed to sort out the terrible mess left behind, but didn't do it well. Into this mass of fraud and incompetence stepped an innocent accountant: his efforts made a real difference to hundreds of people who between them had lost millions.
The story is a fictionalised account of events that were all to real: the author was that accountant and suffered through the most stressful period of his life in trying to put it all right. There are threads of the story that just fade away with ho apparent conclusion – it's unsatisfying, but that's just the way it happened.