Life had been going fairly normal for 16 yo Mitchell Benning, until the annual spring community fair, during the 3rd term school holidays. One sentence from his so called best friend ended all of that in one fair swoop. A day after the fair, Mitchell packed up most of his belongings, and he was sent to his mother's spinster sister to live, and with hard times on the farm, he would not be returning to boarding school for the final school term of the year. Many years later, Mitchell will return to his home town, and a firestorm of a different kind will strike the town, not just the one with him returning to face the community.