Farm life in the Yorkshire Dales isn't easy at the best of times, but things are exceptionally tough for Tom and Sue. Their eight-year-old son has leukaemia, and the doctors aren't making headway. Meanwhile, Catherine, ten, feels lonely and neglected; befriending Uma, the first Hindu at the village school, she takes her to the Moors. Something strange happens, which Catherine interprets as a vision of the Virgin Mary, and a sign her brother will be all right.

Katie can read minds. Being desirable, the male minds she reads are all thinking of one thing. She always responds by hitting them and storming off without explanation. Daniel is an expert in body language and interprets this as a sign she wants to be pursued. Since Daniel spends most of his time, when not terrorizing his students, pursuing women, Katie gets ever more exasperated that he is treating her exactly as he treats every presentable female from the motorcycle cop to the squeegee girl. She cannot read minds when her eyes are covered, or when minds are thinking in a foreign language, so she misinterprets Sandip's desire for hunger. She also holds Daniel responsible for his subconscious desire for his friend's wife (Caroline).

An enigmatic fragment of a bigger story, showing events leading up to a pivotal moment in the life of a strange, troubled young man. After losing his home, fiancée and job, he finds a moment of hopefulness.