Fern has grown up on the remote Orkney Islands of northern Scotland, and is preparing to leave home for the first time to attend boarding school. Faced with the prospect of being away from the familiarity of her loving family, she is apprehensive about what lies ahead. As a member of the Bah?'? Faith who recently turned fifteen, Fern is also preparing to take part in her first nineteen-day Bah?'? Fast.
Concerned, at first, that she will be an outsider because of her Faith, Fern soon makes friends with a number of classmates and discovers that she is not the only one who comes from a slightly different background.