At the center of the novel is a pair of characters, Geoffrey and Sally, who are brother and sister. Each receives equal attention, and the narration is told strictly from a third-person omniscient point of view. Dickinson also introduces a number of intriguing secondary characters, such as Cyril Camperdown, the flamboyant con-man who uses Geof and Sally for his own selfish purposes. Lord Willoughby is a shadowy but extremely capable adversary in The Weathermonger, he masterminds the tracking of Geof and Sally and nearly succeeds in capturing them.

The most important theme in The Weathermonger concerns the nature of social groups and the kinds of pressures society may exert on the individuals within it. The novel explores what could happen if society were suddenly fragmented into small, relatively isolated pockets, completely closed off from the outside world and stripped of the civilizing influence of...