A traveller on an Intercity train smells the burn of brakes as it hisses to a stop in mid-countryside He sees a whitefaced woman leap out and race to the aid of a sheep stranded on its back, unable to rise, in a field Righting it, she turns, her face full of tragedy The image stays in his mind, a strange but familiar despair unable, despite itself, to ignore the desperation it sees in others From this develops a story of the heart's pain and deliverance