An exposé of contemporary life seen from the perspective of an eleven - year - old boy. Shaun, a country boy, is orphaned after a bushfire and must now live in the city where he meets many lonely, mixed - up residents. Can his world of benign nature and theirs of dispirited culture, be reconciled? It is a story of polarities: the country and the city; nature and culture; the material and the digital; the spirit and the flesh; lost faith and renewed hope.