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