Sandor is a wonderful storyteller, and little Joe is ready to listen. The power of the educated over the simple is horribly clear in this disturbing and unusual relationship. As Sandor's motivation both for rescuing little Joe and then for weaving his spell of words becomes clear, the darkness surrounding him is too much for them both, and for the beautiful ex-model sequestered in her Suffolk mansion by an obsessive husband.A net of fear, greed, love, and desire closes around them in a landscape that heightens the contrast between man and the natural world.