Rory is twelve. Mum has left him and his dad and his younger brother Robbie. Rory has been the mainstay of the family, keeping them all going, but deep down he is fearful. Now he must adjust to a new stepmother and brother - Ashton. The new family is moving to Wales when the book opens, to a remote house in a valley with a towering, threatening hill on one side. The stepmother has not yet arrived, and the three boys, plus dad, are spending a week getting to know one another. Ashton, serene and easy-going, is not at first aware of Rory's undercurrents. He wants to make friends and finds it easy with Robbie. Rory is terrified that Ashton will discover his fear of the dark, and he becomes obsessed with his belief that the menacing hill and a crow that lives there are threatening them all. It is almost too late when he realises that the real menace is his own jealousy of Ashton, and that Ashton has become afraid of him. The tense and horrifying climax displays very realistically the power of human emotions as portrayed outwardly through a storm. Rory must face his own guilt and can no longer blame external forces for the jealousy within himself. A remarkable book.