Mayne depicts a realistic, chaotic, ordinary family coping with a brain damaged and deaf oldest child, now an adult but full of childlike fears and understanding very little. They find a place for him working on a canal barge. He does well, aside from his little quirks such as taking his pay in cash and throwing away the paper money -- Gideon has no use for paper -- until the end of the tourist season throws him into a complete tailspin. Where did his job go?

I found the end of the book puzzling. Gideon runs away, spends a night outside in the rain, and is brought back deathly ill. His mother insists on keeping him at home because she doesn't want him to die in hospital. He lies unconscious for several days and wakes up able to hear again. I can't imagine deafness working like that, but perhaps Mayne wanted the book to end with a change in Gideon's life.