The little village of Cotton Abbas is home to both an irritating influx of England?s newly rich and a deliciously weird clutch of long-time locals. Chief among the latter: Colonel Babbington, whose cat, Lavender, is remarkably clumsy and also convinced that he is responsible for saving the world from a Martian invasion. Lavender may be a little? odd, to say the least, but his unusual psychic gifts prove unexpectedly helpful to Fen (visiting incognito) as he attempts to discover who is responsible for the village?s epidemic of ugly anonymous letters.