Uncle is a millionaire elephant who has a B.A. and wears a purple dressing gown. He lives in a labyrinth of skyscrapers connected by water chutes, lifts, and railways, and littered with oil lakes, walls of sweets, and towers of treacle. He and his followers amuse themselves by exploring his home and falling into adventures with its inhabitants, a collection of lunatics, dwarfs, and ghosts. Uncle also frequently fights with the inhabitants of neighboring Badfort, among them the repulsive Jellytussles (a quivering blob) and the cowardly Hitmouse.