Hebe, who works as a student counsellor, is haunted my memories of Silas, the 'wild dodder boy' who befriended her when she was a child in Dodder's Well. She lost touch with him after a disastrous flood but she still watches the river in the hope of seeing him again. Now, returning to her childhood haunts, she finds his hidden world is under threat. Her story wanders the borders of fact and fantasy, of science and art, of sanity and madness, as she catches glimpses of the magic that draws the silent people back to their ancient roots.This novel is about keeping secrets, and seeing things that others cannot see, and about the gulf that exists between people who interpret the same facts in very different ways. It is about the silent people who inhabit this gulf, this no-man's-land, this space between worlds.