Peter finds himself on a livestock farm for a year as a requirement of his course before attending university. He makes friends with members of the local Young Farmers Club, who are planning to produce a play in an attempt raise their dubious reputation with the local community.

The action is set in the village of Toddington on the M1, and on Boxing Day of that year 1962 snow arrives in dramatic fashion, heralding the coldest winter since 1737. The privations of the extreme temperatures are dramatically told over the eleven weeks it lasted. Into the wintery scene arrive four hapless villains, their crime fortuitously coinciding with the night of the Young Farmers' play.