Poachy the squirrel lives near the top of the tallest tree in Amelia Riley Gardens, a lush green space in the middle of a big city, surrounded by huge, white Georgian houses, which make up Victoria Square. The park is big for an inner city square at about the size of two standard football fields laid end to end. A grand duck pond built on two levels dominates its center. It has its own footbridge separating the small shallow part where frogs, tadpoles, and newts live, from the deeper, much larger part, for bigger fish.

According to local rumor, it contains at least one giant carp, although no one has ever seen it, let alone caught it. A lot of mature trees surround the pond, and many of the spaces between them are occupied by ancient wooden benches dedicated to long past residents of the square. A narrow grey path runs right around the outside edge, just inside the ancient, black wrought iron fence.

It takes joggers exactly five minutes to complete one circuit of the place, and that is generally enough for most of the older residents. There are four ornate gates, one on each side of the gardens. These are named after important English poets from a bygone age. Browning gate to the North, Hardy gate to the East, Tennyson gate to the South, and Wordsworth gate to the West.

The longest sides of the square to the west and the east are considered to be the most desirable places to live in the whole of the district. Not everyone can come into the park, either. Oh no. Its use is for residents of the square only. They have to have their own key to get in, and a yearly fee has to be paid to the residents committee for its upkeep. It is tended by a retired bank manager called Arthur and his friend Murray who live in a basement flat on the narrow North side. For now, Poachy is too young to venture outside of the gardens, but there is plenty to be going on with for now within those wrought iron fences.