Hallam, a confused and sweetly old-fashioned teenager, has chosen an unusual way of following life on his father's Leicestershire estate - voyeurism. He spies on everyone: on the gardener's sex life, on his father's ridiculous plans for a underground village, on his wicked stepmother, whom he holds responsible for his mother's suicide - using telescopes, treehouses, lipstick and a dead badger. After an unfortunate chainsaw accident he moves to Edinburgh, where his voyeurism becomes more dangerous. Eventually, however, via skylights, pornographic photographs, sinister lakes and curtain-rails, Hallam is redeemed by love.