A letter, a lost love and a murdered child haunts the residents of Rockdale Street whose past is hidden. Orphaned and left on the steps of Nazareth house Alexander is adopted by the blue-eyed Elsie. But he is now nearly thirty, skint, jobless and in love with his best friend's wife. He tries to turn his life around, but at what cost? The three-foot statue of the Virgin Mary seems to cast judgement, but Alexander is not the only character with shadows... Set at the foot of The Black Mountain the past comes back to haunt them all, for 'the heart', they realise, 'is as dark as the mind'.