In a country tearing itself apart in a brutal civil war, Tom's only aim is to find something, somewhere or someone to believe in. But, where do you turn when you lose your home, job, friends, community in one day? Tom, a young baker, is evicted from his home, life and Dorset town when his father dies. He's conscripted into the army in the brutal war between parliament and king. And it's the middle of winter. He needs friends. Fast. What he doesn't need is a psychotic colonel, a mysterious comrade, Effra, who might be a desperate criminal, and to be stuck in a little fishing town besieged by a whole Royalist army. At least Bathsua is a good influence, but she is a Puritan preacher, and a force equal to anything Tom faces in battle. Right across Dorset Tom struggles to replace the home he has lost; to build something from nothing. Then, to lose everything again, that would be unbearable.