Joe lives in Helmouth, a forgotten village crumbling on the edge of the suburbs. His once-loving mother has fallen under the influence of her boyfriend, the unkind Mr Montagu, whose presence, both real and threatened, overshadows Joe's every move. Joe's best friend, Stanny, insists that Joe must toughen up, become a survivor - and he is adamant that a weekend in the wilderness with Stanny and his Uncle Joff will do the trick. Into Joe's unhappy world comes Hackenschmidt's Circus, and with it the strangely familiar Corinna. She tells Joe, 'In the circus there is a secret heart...' - a place of contained wildness where the barriers between the human and animal world are fluid. And indeed Joe's dreams are already stalked by a tiger, so real that his skin and its pelt begin to feel as one...