Set in a dystopian vision of the future, Firebird and her brother Ford live in a swamp on the edge of the city with their father and grandmother. They make a living by trapping eels - or so they believe until they discover that the eel smokery has been closed for a year, and that the family's money comes from the bags that Firebird makes from dried eel skins. Their shock at discovering that their whole lives have been based on lies - of which the most shocking is that their mother is still alive - coincides with a cataclysmic storm which destroys the swamp and kills their father. Slowly the family has to reassess their whole way of life and, indeed, who they actually are.