What will happen when Sir Aurelian Goldfinger, Chancellor of Leichardt University, appoints the ruthless Murdo McMurdo, former captain of the Australian test cricket team, as Vice-Chancellor in charge of the coming restructure? Professor Geoffrey Medway and his friends are about to find out. Murdo declares a crusade to raise Leichardt to the top percentile of universities worldwide. The plan involves the regimenting and decimation of the staff. Murdo is ably assisted in this by Medway's executive dean, the sadistic Ethel Korova. Medway's job is now threatened. Should he fight or is it time to go? The answer is determined by an event no one anticipated.