Jamie knows what to expect if he doesn’t win: his father is obsessed with the idea that Jamie will become a world squash champion and succeed where he himself had not. But Jamie doesn’t share his father’s single-minded ambition and is desperate to escape from the verbal and physical abuse that will follow when he fails.
Then he finds the girl hiding in his shed, and in helping her to escape from her past and the danger that is pursuing her, he is able to put his own problems into perspective. He realises that he can’t run away for ever – he must come out of the shadows and face up to his father, however, painful the process might be.
