Focusing on British policies in particular, the novel is an unblinking presentation of how deep and widespread anti-immigrant feelings run among the natives. The story reveals the country—but especially London—to be a festering boil of racial hostility that may be revealed explicitly and without shame or may be expressed in more repressed ways that fail in the effort to hide the true feelings of those who may feel compelled to present a more accepting and empathetic façade. The message is that Britons are inherently undesiring of any foreigners interrupting their way of life, but are far more likely to be vehemently so when the foreigners arrive from cultures dominated by darker pigments in their skin.