James, a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old, is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the villages leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex.

Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parentshis father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another manLuke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to him “like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre,” drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Lukes bravado is a deep wounda longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life.