Iris Fairlie is proud and prickly, but increasingly unable to cope with independent living. Against her every desire she is moved into Bridge House, a home for the elderly, where a constant round of confectionery seeks to compensate for the lapses of old age; there is an all-pervading aroma of biscuits and wee.
Iris sulks in her room and asks herself what it is that separates her from her daughter. And where is her son, her lost boy, missing for years on some quest she never understood?
Mrs Fairlie is pulled into the drama of a little boy lost in a swollen river. Can this boy be found? Can hers?
Little Mikey's fall pulls Iris into the maelstrom of his fate, along with Matt, Megan and his Auntie Jade, whose stories are featured in books 2, 3 and 4 of the Lost Boys Quartet.