Mila is a young African boy who finds his idyllic life shattered when his tribe cast him out for betraying a visiting merchant. Knowing nothing about the outside world of 1830, Mila naively sets off to find 'civilization' and the trader to atone for his crime. African corsairs, slave traders, a Spanish pirate girl, an evil travelling show owner and an English railway engineer are among the characters that mould Mila s perception of humanity on an incredible journey that will sweep the reader away to another time and place. An extraordinarily captivating story.