The title originating from Kipling's poem "The Absent-Minded Beggar", is a story about life in Balfour, Ontario in the 1890's. A six-year-old boy arrives from England with a square of oil-cloth sewn on his coat bearing the inscription: 'This is Ludar Prentice. He has no money. He is going to his father Vivien Prentice at Balfour, Ontario, Canada. BE KIND TO HIM.' He was to join a father that he had never met, and that no one in town had ever heard of. Fortunately, some kind citizens stepped in and he was offered a home. Never quite fitting in, he lived with them until adulthood where he is determined to find out who he is. The story is not only about Ludar, but it is also about the folks in Balfour and how the town of Balfour grows and changes into the new century.