As 1970 dawns Jack, brother Nick and his family set off from swinging London to fulfil their dream of living off the land in the wild unforgiving hills of North Wales. They know nothing of farming or what battles lie ahead with the weather and their neighbours, or the ingenuity needed to survive. But armed with the Farmer's Weekly and protected by their youthful idealism and sense of the ridiculous they begin their adventure.Peaks and Troughs is a warm-hearted, humorous and inspirational tale of life in all its drama – birth, death, tragedy, comedy, disappointment and hope – with the star player being one Rattlerow King David the 57th, a prize boar whose prodigious sex drive literally saves Nick's bacon.

Leaving their Welsh hill farm behind, Nick, Ros and their children arrive on the little-known island of Ikaria in 1978, having impulsively boarded the first ferry leaving Athens. Escape to Ikaria tells the story of how they become involved with the islanders and their way of life. Nick tries his hand at anything to get by: night fishing out in the Aegean, unloading the potato boats from Samos, mixing cement for wayward house-builder Datsun Jim, and tending the gardens of the old monastery where a solitary nun, Sister Ulita, controls the village's water supply.