Do you have to be dead to be famous? Stanley Buckle is a quiet sort of boy. Since his dad died, his closest friend has been Neville, an artist who lives in an old mill with a one-eared cat called Vincent. Then Neville mysteriously vanishes in a terrible flood. As the story of Neville's disappearance spreads, the price of his paintings rockets. Stanley is shocked to discover that Neville's work is worth more when he's dead than when he's alive. Then Stanley discovers something even more astounding - something that is to lead him into the most dangerous adventure of his life. Set partly in rural England and partly in the Scottish isles in the 1960s.