The old man cares for his seven-year-old godson in their small cottage on the edge of the Suffolk marshes. The boy loves him. They have come through a hard winter and now it is spring. They are entirely content. Then, one lowering, still day, on their walk towards the sea, they are alarmed by the sight of a man shooting down two mallard ducks. The boy is terrified. It seems like a bad omen. When the boy's father turns up again, the old man is afraid he has come to take the boy away. But Blaydon settles down with them, they even come to depend upon him. Perhaps the old man was wrong to have misgivings. Perhaps not.