Publisher's Synopsis
In the bitter cold of an unrelenting winter Tomas and his son, Peter, arrive in Chust and settle there as woodcutters. Tomas digs a water channel around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, nor why he carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know. But Tomas is a man with a past; a past that is tracking him with deadly intent.