Robert has been picked to play rugby for his team, and he is very pleased. He only wishes he could tell his dad, with whom he has little contact. Tragedy strikes when he is badly injured and is paralysed from the waist down. He becomes difficult, sulky and negative and refuses to cooperate with his physiotherapist. His mum gives him the room overlooking the street in their first floor flat. He has a tutor whom he responds to, and he genuinely enjoys her baby, Ben. Gradually he begins to notice life outside the window in the street below, and his mum gives him a good pair of binoculars. One day he sees an attempted kidnapping and makes an heroic effort to bump down the stairs on his bottom to get to his wheelchair and foil the kidnapping. The plot is unlikely, but gripping, and Robert's negative reaction to his paralysis rings true. His dad returns, not to the family, but to live nearby, and be more supportive. The children are teenagers, but the writing is not sophisticated, and the novel is shortish with a number of black and white pictures.