No-one can stay mad for long with Father Harry, the charismatic priest at Saint Jude's. His lifestyle may be unorthodox, but his good works in Mirkhill - an ancient and ruined district of Glasgow - more than compensate for his own occasional drunken binges, and uneven temper. Certainly, Mother Agnes of the Holy Child always sees his good side. She thinks him a kind of saint, a state to which she herself has always aspired. Agnes looks after rescued animals in the stables of the Convent and feeds the local tramps, among them Sky High, a former professor of poetry, now declined into alcohol and drugs. A true poet, he rejoices in the name bestowed upon him by the gang of down-and-outs who call themselves 'The Wanderers'. Gradually, but vividly, the strands and characters of the story are all revealed - with a mounting sense of unease. When a youngster is savagely attacked in a school art room, and left for dead, the shocking discovery of the incident by two cleaners leads to a series of deceptions which embroils the local community. Then a death at the Convent leads Mother Agnes and Detective Constable Frank Childers to the growing suspicion that a murderer walks among them.