Josiah Horatio Nelson is born to unusual parents who met in psychiatric hospital. The background and odd behaviour of the family provoke the continued attention of the social services who finally remove the boy from his home. Saving him from despair, Latin tutor Thomas Marius forms an intense relationship with the boy. Olivia Fane's novel explores modern attitudes to love in all its forms and the dark side of its obsession with paedophilia and child abuse.