A story about arriving, belonging and finding home. As a violent civil war rages back home, teenaged Alem and his father are in a B&B in Berkshire. It's his best holiday ever. The next morning his father is gone. He's left a note explaining that his parents want to protect Alem from the war. This strange grey country is now his home. On his own, and in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council, he lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear something from his Father. Then Alem meets car-obsessed Mustapha, the lovely 'out of your league' Ruth and dangerous Sweeney -- 'no nickname. It doesn't get shortened'; three unexpected allies who spur him on as Alem fights to be seen as more than just the Refugee Boy.