His world changes, however, when he is asked to draw a portrait of his mysterious neighbour Tom Leyton who was a Vietnam veteran who for thirty years has lived alone with his sister Caroline, raising his silkworms and hiding from prying eyes.

Because of this he is the subject of ugly gossip and rumour, much of it led by neighbour Mrs. Mossop, who views Leyton's brief teaching career with suspicion.

When Joseph finally meets his reclusive neighbour he discovers a cold, brooding man lost deep within his own cocoon of silence.

He soon realises that in order to truly draw Tom Leyton, he must find the courage to unlock the man's dark and perhaps dangerous secrets.

But Joseph has his own secrets, including the pain of his damaged relationship with his absent father and his childhood fear of the Running Man – a local character whose wild appearance and strange manner of moving everywhere at a frantic pace terrified him when he was a small boy.