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.