Captain Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch is a drunk in charge of a police force that consists of a corporal, a lance-constable, and a six-foot-tall dwarf named Carrot. When a secret society summons a dragon to menace the city, Vimes and his tiny squad are the only ones who care enough to investigate. The book that transformed the Watch from a joke into the Discworld's moral centre, and Vimes from a wreck into one of the great characters in modern fiction. The best starting point for anyone new to Discworld.