It's 1986 and Industry Year, which is great news for manufacturing in Rummidge, an unlovely sprawling city in the heart of the Midlands, raked by motorways. Thatcherism is working and the recession is levelling out. Suffering from the last round of cuts in funding, the University is desperate to cast off its ivory-tower image. Its first effort towards achieving this is entering the Industry Year Shadow Scheme . Robyn Penrose is chosen as the University' s representative. She's a young, idealistic lecturer in English Literature and an expert on the Victorian industrial novel. Straight from school into academia, she s never set foot in a factory. Now she finds herself shadow to Vic Wilcox, the middle-aged, self-made managing director of a Rummidge engineering firm. The thought of following his every move for one day a week for the next six months is totally unappealing to Robyn. And Vic, for his part, is equally hostile. But over time, they both find themselves drawn to each other...