Barriers and traps erected in the mind are more pernicious than brick walls. Torn from his parents' fairy-garden by the Blitz, the author is dragged through childhood horrors, ending up in the New World. It turns out to be more of the same. He finally buries himself in a decrepit "fixer-upper" on the Sunshine Coast. Out of that misery comes a light that draws him to Crescent Beach: his newfound love and a healing garden.