This traces the effect of kibbutz life on four disillusioned volunteers who arrive for a working holiday and find the work more like hard labour. Two of the English, Pete and Dave, soon alienate themselves by their foul-mouthed, high-spirited behaviour. The third, Carrie, nervous and lonely, desperately tries but cannot relate to either her compatriots or the Israelis and it is left to Cambridge drop-out Mike to convey something of the frustration and impotence felt by many of the young of modern England.
