Tristan Throttlethwaite is from the planet Arcadia, in the constellation of Orion. However, he doesn't know that. Tristan Throttlethwaite is his Earth name. If you think that is difficult to spell, you should see his real name. In Arcadian, his name has thirty‑five letters, with five Qs, six Xs and seven Zs. It is quite unpronounceable.

Tristan was stranded on Earth as a baby when his father's company space ship crashed. His father was an intergalactic travelling salesman who sold spare parts for Milky Way Spaceships Limited. He had decided to take his family away with him on a business trip and had mistaken Earth for a similar, but more advanced planet, fifty light years away. (Actually he had been map reading and had got the galaxy planet atlas upside down.)

What happened to Tristan's parents is something of a mystery (and another story). However, Tristan was alone and lost in a strange place. After many adventures and hardships he was taken in by Harry & Mary Throttlethwaite and brought up as their own son.

Tris is now 7 years old ‑ Earth years that is. (In Arcadian he would be 21 as there are only 120 days in a year. Imagine having a birthday, Christmas, Easter, and holidays every four months. There wouldn't be much time left for school.) The Throttlethwaites have just started a take‑away food business in a sleepy sugarcane town in North Queensland.

Tristan is growing up just like any other normal boy. Little does anyone know that at age 21, Arcadian children begin to develop unusual powers and need special training in how to use them. The sleepy little town is about to be woken up.