Illmoor is a rather unsavoury land -- the map at the front of the book shows towns such as Phlegm and Chudderford. Dullitch, the principal city of the region, is described as a "polluted, crime-ridden flea-pit of eccentricity, where man walks arm-in-arm with dwarf, troll walks arm-in-arm with man and dwarf walks arm-in-arm with troll (figuratively speaking)." An infestation of huge rats breaks out from underground and the ineffectual city council under the watchful eye of the even more ineffectual Duke Modesit (a man considering faking his own death so that he can get away from the place!) are at a loss as to how to deal with it, a situation not helped by the fact that the city is virtually bankrupt.

(Source: Hodder Children's Books)