Traumatized by an accident which involves something falling from the sky & leaves him eight & a half million pounds richer but hopelessly estranged from the world around him Remainder's hero spends his time & money obsessively reconstructing & re-enacting vaguely remembered scenes & situations from his past a large building with piano music in the distance the familiar smells & sounds of liver frying & spluttering lethargic cats lounging on roofs until they tumble off them But when this fails to quench his thirst for authenticity he starts reconstructing more & more violent events as his repetition addiction spirals out of control