The peace of Nettlebridge, a quiet English village in the fifties, is shattered by a chain of events.

Ten year old Charlie Blackmore, on the off chance, meets and makes friends with Marco, an egotistic gypsy boy, when trying to save a dog.

The sole witnesses of a violent robbery at a Colonel's Country House, the boys not wanting to be implicated leave the scene.

With the mysterious disappearance of George McDonald, the village storekeeper and Mildred Marsh, a known gossip, a body found on a railway line triggers off a lengthy police investigation. Suspicion falling on a nearby gypsy encampment, as yet unresolved, an attempted suicide in a country lane giving rise to further speculation.

Iris, Charlie's mother, with an unexpected find, gaining an insight into the storekeeper's past, puts two and two together.

For Charlie, life will never be the same again.