'Our life is like a patch of sky in front of us. At times it is a clear as a bell, like a December morning...and at times..our lives get as stormy as a September squall spitting lightning and thunder.' So says Marguerite's Grandfather as he explains to her the pleasures and pains of growing up.

But this is no ordinary story. It tells the tale of an orphan girl wrenched from a life of luxury to live in a 'smuggler's den'. Marguerite's discovery of a family she never knew exsisted is a richly interwoven with schoolday escapades, childhood games and squabbles, the warmth of family love and the dawning realisation of hardships ahead.