At the fictional Australian resort of Canonbury, a flash flood maroons a group of accountants in a bar room. To pass the time, the senior partner, a woman, challenges them to stop talking about money and tell a true story about a romantic or sexual encounter that was pivotal to their life. Five women and six men take up the challenge.

The tales start innocently enough, with Aitkin spinning some yarns that build in tension as lovers overcome obstacles and are drawn inexorably together. As the evening wears on, people are impelled to jump up and tell more erotic, even voyeuristic, tales. They never stoop to nastiness, unlike Fay Weldon's female narrators in The Spa Decameron (2007), but remain earnest, principled, and politically correct. Men and women have an equal say, and are encouraging and empathetic with each other. All very twenty-first century Australian, in spite of the outdated fashion bloopers: the women, when looking casually sexy tend to be wearing 'slacks and a blouse'.

Although The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales are now thought of as classics, they were ground-breaking in their use of the vernacular. Don Aitkin, better known as a political writer and academic, follows their example to produce a work that is easy to read, entertaining, and thought-provoking. Self-published, with a smattering of misprints, it would have benefited from a firmer edit.