Graham Swift's novel "Out of This World" is the story of the Beech family.  The central characters are Harry Beech, and his daughter Sophie.  The novel focuses on the theme of estrangement within the family - between Harry and Sophie, and Harry and his own deceased father Robert.

Both Harry and Sophie Beech lost their mothers at an early age.  Harry's mother died giving birth to him, while Sophie's mother was killed in a plane crash when Sophie was only five years old.  Even so, a huge gulf exists between Harry and Sophie and their only surviving parents - their fathers.  Sophie, who was raised by her grandfather, Harry's father Robert Beech, after the death of her mother, seldom saw her own father, as Harry, a photojournalist, was frequently away on field assignments as she was growing up.  Harry himself had had a falling out with his father Robert before the elder Beech's death ten years previously, and had refused to take control of his father's company because of his moral aversion to its products, the instruments of war.

The main content of the novel focuses on the explorations of the two central characters on the rifts between themselves and their respective fathers.  By the end of the novel, it appears that Harry and Sophie at least will be reconciled.