After 30 years at St Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go. Each class has its clowns its rebels and its underdogs. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t fit the mould. A troublemaker. A boy with hidden shadows inside. With insolvency and academic failure looming a new broom has arrived at the venerable school bringing Powerpoint sharp suits and even sixth form girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist this march to the future a shadow from his past is stirring. A boy who even 20 years on haunts his teacher’s dreams. A boy capable of bad things.