"He looked out towards the headland, counting past the six smaller waves that would follow, waiting for the seventh. And when he saw it begin to rise, the fear in him prevented him from moving. Thomas Broderick stood on the top of Sgeir Ghlas and waited for the wall of water to come, and it came slowly, curling like the fingers of a claw, rising up until he could not see beyond it. His last thought before the wave snatched him from the island was that he had seen perfection."Iain Broderick is growing up in Inverdaig, a remote village on the West Coast of Scotland. His father is long dead, and a man he calls Uncle lives with his mother, but the history of his family is never discussed. The mysterious old Norseman who lives in a cottage at the end of the village begins to tell Iain amazing stories, and as their relationship grows, Iain comes to find out more of the old Norseman's history too. This takes Iain on a journey of discovery across Europe, tracing the origins of the fantastic tales, where he finds new truths that change the old man's life.