For years a reactionary Labour Party has dominated Treorchan, a grim mining town thrust high in the South Wales Valleys. But now, in 1966, change is coming with the election to the local council of Errigal Keerogue, flamboyant landlord of the Ebbw Arms, as sole Liberal representative.

He is determined to challenge the comrades' monopoly of power.

They clash on many issues. The sheep that plague the town. The invasion of hippies who paint the coal-tip in psychedelic colours following a gnomic instruction from Bob Dylan. The sinister nocturnal activities, up in the hills, of the Sons of Freedom paramilitary gang.

Sometimes Errigal wins, sometimes the Stalinists. Sometimes it is the hill farmers, their common enemy, who are chiefly responsible for the straying animal problem, made worse by the pound-keeper's inconvenient mysterious disappearances.

Things come to a head with Errigal's declaration of independence, a move that brings both MI5 and the KGB scurrying to the isolated town. Shortly after, an unexpected Parliamentary by-election finally settles the struggle for political control.