The central character of the novel is Ukridge, a sort of beautiful dreamer who wanders about above the fray of dealing with reality. It’s quite dangerous to know him! He'll invite you out to have a dinner, discover he has no money, borrow the money from you and never return his debt. There is no to say, friends try to avoid him. Jeremy Garnet, the aspiring novelist, has successfully avoided his old school friend for some time when bad luck causes Ukridge to find Garnet's address. Soon, Ukridge is found barreling through the door along with the new Mrs. Ukridge to invite Garnet to the shore to co found an entrepreneurial enterprise, a chicken farm. In Ukridge's eyes, this is a made-to-order money machine. You borrow some chickens, raise some of your own, return the original chickens and your bounty expands from there. Naturally, neither Ukridge nor Garnet have any knowledge or experience about raising chickens to lay eggs. On the way to the shore, Garnet sees a lovely young woman who's reading one of his novels. He's immediately stunned, and the complications begin…