The book opens with a middle-aged librarian coming across an advertisement for the sale of a farm in the north of England where he grew up and he decides to return to the village of his childhood posing as a prospective buyer. It is the first time in twenty years that he has been there and the farmhouse, which has not changed much since, evokes memories of the year 2002.
Sixteen-year-old James leads an isolated life: at school he is the only gay person who is out, which happened inadvertently. He has since told his parents; his mother worries about him, but neither parent knows how to engage with him. His father signs him up to help the milkman on his rounds, an early start every morning which takes them around the village, with the last stop at the Hyde’s farm where the milkman and David the farmer often pause for a chat. One morning, James is wandering around and comes across a blonde boy of a similar age, smoking a cigarette. He’s not in school and knows nothing about James. It turns out he is the Hyde’s nephew, staying at the farm as his mother has gone abroad with a new lover and his father is in prison.
James is transfixed by Luke who becomes the focus of all his unrequited desire. He hopes for sightings, he yearns for, and occasionally gets, some time with Luke, who is cool, sometimes playful; there is no hint of whether or not he knows James is gay (it turns out he does). There are some incidents such as the day James comes round the corner to see Mia in the farmyard talking to Luke. Mia, a school friend, had asked James for Luke’s number after James had taken him to the school disco, but James wanted to keep him to himself. The sight of Luke with another person overwhelms James and he runs away. Another time, James takes Luke to the hollow, a place the teenagers go to mess around. Every encounter is highly charged.
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