As in his earlier novel Headlong Hall, Peacock assembles a group of eccentrics, each with a single monomaniacal obsession, and derives humour and social satire from their various interactions and conversations. The character who most closely approximates to the author's own voice is the Reverend Doctor Folliott, a vigorous middle-aged clergyman with a love for ancient Greek language and literature, who is greatly suspicious of the reform slogan of the "March of Intellect", as well as anything done by the "learned friend". There are two romantic courtships, between Mr. Chainmail and Susannah Touchandgo and between Captain Fitzchrome and Lady Clarinda Bossnowl. The action begins during a house-party in the nouveau riche Mr. Crotchet's villa on the Thames, continues during a river and canal journey towards Wales, and ends in Mr. Chainmail's pseudo-medieval dwelling, with a parody of the Captain Swing riots.