Lancelot Weed's teachers look like giant bugs. There are enemy soldiers behind every rock and in every secret hiding place. Surviving involves being brave enough to navigate the complicated labyrinths of the small town and the hundreds of square miles of forest and lakes beyond. For Lancelot Weed, home with a new step-dad is also enemy territory. Dead Man's Hill with Jenny Bolt is paradise. A record snow has made the Christmas war games the stuff of legend. Lancelot can taste victory on the cold crystal air. But then they discover the woman under the ice. Jenny convinces Lancelot that they must save her. To do this they will need to survive fire, snow and ice, and a stalking mountain lion.