Ben and his wife Susan were on their way to have dinner with their friends lan and Betty. It was a dark, windy night, and they did not know the road very well. They drove through Cookstown, until they found what they thought was the road to Dorling, where lan and betty lived. But it soon became clear that they were not on the road to Dorling at all. The road that they were on was getting narrower, and there were no other cars no it. The wind was blowing harder with every minute that passed.
They came to a small village. They drove past a Church. and then two houses with out lights on. There was nobody about to tell them where they were, or where the road went. Just then Ben saw a telephone box, fifty meters or so further on. While he walked back along the road to see if there was a name outside the church, Susan telephoned lan and Betty to tell them that they were still on their way.
Betty was just saying that the dinner was already rather dry, when Ben came back to the telephone box. his head down against the wind. He said that there was a tree lying across the road, and that the telephone lines were down. Susan heard nothing more from Betty about the dinner.