It is the story of two young children, born into the poverty-stricken years of the Isle of Man, when drunkenness and smuggling were rife. Two children who were imprisoned for the heinous crime of stealing a scrap of food to keep themselves alive. Daniel, worldly-wise, who has had to fend for himself for most of his ten years of life. Unwanted from birth, abandoned and unloved, he has had the strength to develop into a caring young man, old and mature for his age. Eight-year-old Isabella, who had been forced to flee from home to escape being sold into prostitution by a depraved mother. Small for her age, she is frail and unable to look after herself. Released from gaol in Castle Rushen in midwinter, with no home to go to, the children team up in a heartrending battle for survival. As they slither rapidly into further trouble and disaster looms, it is only their involvement with a smuggling family that saves them from deportation to the Americas … or possibly even death!