In a tale to appeal to young and old alike Jess Carter & the Oil Boat takes us from the industrial gloom of the Black Country to the wide expanse of the Manchester Ship Canal on board a horse-drawn tanker narrowboat in the spring of 1939. The family on board pick up a mysterious young stranger they find sleeping rough under a bridge and take him along for the trip; the stranger, a young mixed race boy, does his best to fit in with the work and life of the boat despite the resentment of the fifteen-year-old son of the boatwoman, finding adventures along the way which add spice to this fascinating tale of life 'on the cut'. And the boy's own story, the reason for his lone life on the streets, is slowly revealed as the trip progresses.