Maudie Hessett is 'simple'. The story she tells happened in 1499 when she was only 5. She is a happy child, accepted by her neighbours as she is. When she finds two green children in the wolf pit, she takes them home. The villagers find them strange, a doctor wants to buy the girl to put on show, the priest teaches them English, but beats the boy when he doesn't learn fast enough (he seems to have a learning disability too). The girl explains they come from Merlin Land, but the priest says there is no such place. The boy fades and dies, but the girl, now called Sal, marries a miller, who carries her away. His village people think she is a witch and chase her out, so she comes back to Maudie and her mum with her baby boy. One night she and little Ulf disappear, and Maudie follows them, to see them go into a cave and swim across a green river and walk away into a green distance. Maudie can't follow because she can't swim, but she promises herself to learn so she can take her own baby there. This is a strange, mystic story, a Suffolk country folk tale, told in believable and natural language, and the pictures, while simple, are intensely beautiful.