Like many of Chesterton's works, The Flying Inn is a humorous, satirical romp that conceals beneath a playful exterior important and thoughtful philosophical insights on religion, the nature of the state, political oversight and authority, and the roots of human liberty.

The rollicking story follows the adventures of two friends-- one a humble English innkeeper and the other a boisterous Irish soldier, who go on the lam to escape a tyrannical decree prohibiting the sale of alcohol. They are pursued across the countryside, dispensing good cheer (and rum) wherever they alight-- and finally succeed in raising a rebellion of the common man against the political class who have decided they know best how a man must live his life, and can enforce their views by the power of the state.