The adventures and misadventures of a teenage boy, Calum McDougal, as he grows up in Hong Kong in the early nineteen-seventies. There is plenty of mischief, but at the heart of his story is a remarkable little orphan girl whom he first meets at the Day Centre that his mother has recently founded. The little girl's disability leads to her peculiar nickname, Knitting, and influences Calum's life journey. The humorous and sometimes roguish background stories, and how Knitting and Calum achieve the seemingly impossible, are what make this book so readable.