[T]he hills stood for untameable things, things wild and no more to be checked by laws than the bright clouds that sparkled above them, and whose shadows all along the brows of the hills lay like a frown…the hills going right into cloudland. What is there for an Irish lad to do when the old women of his village start levelling curses at visiting archaeologists, curses that may inadvertently light upon innocent residents? Mickey Connor has a capital idea—he'll gather a small band of friends and take them up into the hills, to live there until the tumult in town subsides. And how will they spend their time in the hills?