In the forest, armed men from a new settlement ventured to investigate strange lights and found three fires burning, a child at their centre tethered to a stake. The boy appeared to be white, perhaps three or four years old, unable to speak. He watched the men with the darting, fearful eyes of a wild animal and at their approach he crouched, snatched a stick from a fire, and snarled. So begins Dirk Wildlight's life in the tiny Victorian settlement of Tilmore. Reluctantly he's taken in, only to be treated with suspicion, neglect and cruelty. Then, a strange turn in fortune leads him not only towards freedom, but to an understanding of the mystery of his earliest years.