Ten-year-old Sandy's childhood ends when his mother sells him to a farmer who half-starves and beats him.

So he runs away for good, away from the farm and from home.

Alone on the road, penniless, Sandy is lucky to find friends: Spot and Patch, two drover's dogs, who are making their way home all by themselves.

With no idea where they are going, Sandy joins them, following them across Scotland, through a wild landscape of loch and mountain, to the Hebridean island of Mull in the West.

When the dogs lead him to their croft, Sandy's deepest wish seems to have come true. He, too, has found a loving home.

He is happier at Lachlan's croft than he thought he could be, until he discovers that he is not really wanted there at all.

Unwelcome, he takes to the road again. But without his four-legged friends.

Will he go through his whole life friendless and lonely?

Susan Price is an acclaimed writer of books for the young. She has won the Carnegie medal and the Guardian Fiction prize and her books have been translated into many languages.