The story opens years after the events of Interesting Times, in which Rincewind is magically transported to the forsaken continent of XXXX due to a miscalculation made by the Unseen University wizards. Rincewind has been surviving by falling in water holes, looking for grubs under rocks, and befriending indigenous peoples (up to a point, since Rincewind would invariably talk about the weather, a subject about which the native tribes were apparently sensitive). Rincewind soon meets the magical kangaroo Scrappy, who was sent by the creator of XXXX. Scrappy explains to Rincewind that he is fated to bring back "The Wet," meaning the rain, and that he is the reason for the eons-long drought. Scrappy says that the continent is unfinished, and time and space will be an eternal anomaly there until