Short - 'Now, the first thing you have to understand about me, is that I know exactly where my place is in the world, I just don't know what that world looks like, how it turns, or even if it turns at all.' Brighton Pier, 1923 James Griffin, seventeen, is a boy 'tainted'. After the war, his world shattered into a million shards, each one carved with their own story, each one as real to him as the next. The earth sang a different tune, each sound as passionate and tormented, each life as unfamiliar, every voice a liar. But this story is not about him, but Walter Smith of London. A well-educated man with a simple yet intellectually brilliant mind. In a challenging and unnamable love, Walter is the only man that has the ability to piece together James' thoughts, and thus connect the lost shards of his world.