Mick Crossan is a ‘boarded out’ boy, removed from his widowed mother in the slums of Glasgow and placed in the care of nuns and priests for ‘moral protection’. There he is abused and runs away. Recaptured, he is placed with a farming couple where he is subjected to indescribable cruelty. Mick, however, is a survivor and escapes to Glasgow. Intelligent and resourceful he is eventually reunited with his mother, finds work with a kind sheep farmer and happiness as a shepherd.

In the 1950’s Scottish Councils removed thousands of children from their families for a ‘better life’ with foster parents in the Highlands and Islands as ‘boarded out’ children. Some were treated well and welcomed into the new families but others, like Mick, suffered cruelty and abuse.