Storm in the night.
Thunder like mountains blowing up.
Rain streaming down the windows, babbling in the downspouts.
And Grandfather?...And Thomas?...And Ringo, the cat?
They were in the dark.

And in the dark, with smells and sounds and lightning-lit sights of the storm all around them, Grandfather tells Thomas a very special story about when he was a boy.

From the back cover of the paperback edition