David and his little brother, John, find themselves almost alone against the world - at the tender age of 2 years old and younger - on this tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, from about the middle of the 1950s. Their mother and father have "abandoned" them for the greener, and more prosperous, pastures of England. The brothers have been consigned to the care of their, already elderly, great-grandmother - Joanna. They fall prey, almost inevitably, to several dangers in life - not least, a rapacious product of the British colonial system under which they have to live. Can such unprepossessing ingredients for a happy early childhood ever lead to anything but disaster? Read this book to discover how they might - and how one's faith in human nature could well be restored by the possible ultimate triumph brought about by David's (and John's) particular "drama of being a child".