At the far end of England is the fishing village of Mousehole, so named because of the smallness of its harbor and the narrowness of its harbor mouth. Once, a cat called Mowzer lived there with an old fisherman named Tom. They led a very pleasant life, because Tom loved Mowzer and Mowzer loved Tom. Every day they ate mouth-watering meals of fresh fish-morgy broth, baked hake, kedgeree, or star-gazy pie. Then, one terrible winter, the Great Storm-Cat came clawing and snarling and leaping at the harbor walls so that no boat could go out to fish. And soon, with Christmas coming, there was no food left in Mousehole. 

It was then that Tom and Mowzer set out in their little boat to try and save the village. As they crossed the harbor towrad the Mousehole gap, the voice of the Great Storm-Cat rose all around them, and Mowzer knew that either she must soothe the Storm-Cat's anger, or she and Tom would surely die. 

In Antonia Barber's dramatic and moving story, the sweet voice of Mowzer and the furious howls of the Great Storm-Cat seem to sing from the pages while the strength and beauty of Nicola Bayley's illustrations bring to vivid and shimmering life this long-ago Cornish adventure. 

From the dust jacket of the first American edition by Macmillan Company