Roy Strang is engaged in a strange quest in a surrealist South Africa. His missi
on is to eradicate an evil predator-scavenger bird, the marabou stork, before it
drives away the peace-loving flamingo from the picturesque Lake Torto. But behi
nd this world lies another: the world of Roy's bizarre family, the Scottish hous
ing scheme in which he grew up, his mundane job, a disastrous emigration to Afri
ca, and his youthful life of brutality with a gang of soccer casuals.