When she is displaced to Middleton, near Manchester, to stay with her strange Aunt Mary, an unhappy 13 year old, Joanna Logan, begins a diary. The diary reflects all her unanswered questions about what is happening with her parents. It also records her experience of Middleton, and the friendship which grows with Joss, the boy from down the street who, unknown to his family, is keeping a special dog, Riverside Lad. Twenty five years later, Joanna returns...