Caught up in the strife between smugglers on the Solway Coast and the gypsies of Galloway, young Patrick Heron is flung into a society of social outcasts, outlaws and downright murderers. But this world of moonlit confusion and bloody horror offers a kind of freedom, too, as Patrick travels far beyond the conventions of his day to enter a world made anew by fear and desolation and courage and energy.

Crockett's raciest narrative is full of the wild Galloway landscape which he knew so well and loved so much, informed at every turn of the plot by his delight in local history and old folk tales of the region.