Plot summary

Felix Happer, in an unusual form of therapy with a fellow named Moritz, is the eccentric owner/president of the Houston-based conglomerate Knox Industries, his family which bought it from the Knox family over half a century ago, they never having bothered to change the name. Knox Oil and Gas, a division of the company, decides to build a refinery on the northern Scottish coast, Mac - short for his surname MacIntyre - from the Acquisitions Department, assigned to acquire the property, namely the entire town of Ferness. He is given the job in the company's mistaken belief that he is Scottish - he truly Hungarian - and thus can talk the language of the locals. That assignment includes going to Ferness to conduct the negotiations in person instead of his generally preferred method of doing business from Houston via telephone and telex. He will have some "local" assistance in the form of Danny Oldsen, who works for Knox Oil and Gas in their Aberdeen office. In dealing with Gordon Urquhart, the local innkeeper with an accounting business on the side, he who has been chosen to negotiate on behalf of the town, Mac is unaware of the residents' secret agenda, they a quirky lot. In the process, both Mac and Danny get sidetracked in the dealings, Danny's new focus being his pursuit of Marina, a researcher working in Knox's Aberdeen laboratory, she who feels more comfortable in the water than on land and who mistakenly believes that Knox's want for the land is to build her dream of a new marine institute. Things become even more complex with the introduction of three others into the proceedings: Victor, a capitalist Soviet fisherman who is on his regular pilgrimage to Ferness; Ben, a local who lives on the beach and who has a different stake in what happens than most of the other residents; and Happer himself who has come to Ferness for his passion project on which Mac was supposed to dedicate his spare time while in Ferness.—Huggo