A young and inexperienced vicar is called upon to counsel one of his more eccentric parishioners. Alex Wainright has been haunted by memories of his childhood all his life, and wishes to lay the ghosts of his past life to rest.
It is a week before Christmas, and forty-one years to the day that he has lived with his terrible secret, and he is convinced that the events of that day have caught up with him at last.A solitary figure, he has sought solace from a past deed through alcohol, but absolution is what he seeks now - before it is too late.