It tells the story of Jamie, a 16-year-old living in Ashingford who used to enjoy playing squash.

It is revealed in the book that he stopped liking the sport after his family moved to Ashingford.

The emotional and physical bullying that Jamie has to endure makes him recoil into himself until he feels backed into a corner and doesn't know where to turn.

[1] But Jamie doesn't share his father's single-minded ambition and is desperate to escape from the verbal and physical abuse that follows when he fails.

Then Jamie finds the girl hiding in his shed, and in helping her to escape from her past and the danger that is pursuing her, he is able to put his own problems in perspective and realize that he must come out of the shadows and face up to his father.