A chance rockfall climbing a slender sea stack inflicted such terrible head injuries on Paul Pritchard that he spent the next year fighting the hemiplegia which robbed his right side of feeling and played cruel tricks with speech and memory.

In his fight for recovery the reader triumphs with him as his brain remembers how to use each forgotten muscle. The book laces great climbing memories with coming to terms with selling his gear and becoming an onlooker. It paints a wry picture of himself and his fellow patients and examines his adjusted relationships with family and friends.