When Robert Bradley gave up his job in the Jarrow shipyards to work at his uncle's old-established carpenter's shop in a small village, he found that life with domineering Uncle John did not always prove easy. As a diversion, he began exploring the Durham countryside and it was there that he had his first strange encounter with Millie, the ethereal girl-child whose odd ways and nocturnal wanderings had led her to be known locally as 'Thorman's Moth'.