Introducing... Odeline Milk, a strange young lady from a sleepy, buttoned-down market town.

A young lady with an obsession - you can guess what it is by the way she dresses: white collarless shirt, a waistcoat and billowing black trousers, the bowler hat.

She's on her way to London, to make her name as a great mime artist.

She hopes.

And typical Odeline, she's arriving prepared. With the small inheritance left her by her mother, she's bought herself a home, an old canal boat.

What she doesn't know yet is that for some the city's canals have an appeal of their own. They are below the eyeline, a sort of halfworld, a good place to hide for a community of curious outsiders, all with their own stories to tell, stories which might help a certain young lady to think differently about life.

Because there's a lot Odeline doesn't know. Not least, that her new home has a history of its own.