Gilbert Macleod comes to St Kilda as the teacher. This rites-of-passage tale cannot unfold without the influence of a population alien to the new arrival but serene in its relationship with creation. Against a background of the everyday rituals of survival, both physical and metaphysical, Gilbert is drawn into the community, until his personal conflicts seem insignificant in his new understanding of a people apart. Hugh Gunn Ross evokes a distant world of the late nineteenth century, and weaves a powerful narrative through moments of great happiness, failure, tragedy and loss.