Things are unreliable. Things break. Things fall apart. Even at 11 years old, Mark knows this all too well.

By the time he moves out of London to a wintery seaside town, things are already bad. His mother is sick, and Mark doesn’t get along with his new stepfather. Although he finds an ally in an elderly neighbor, it still doesn’t feel like home, and shadows are soon gathering as things slowly start to get worse.

Mark knows he has to do something, but he doesn’t know what. And the only people who might be able to help him . . . may not exist.