A relatively simple story that's so well told, played and visually conceived that it actually manages to leave you in numbed silence long after it has finished. Twelve year old James lives on a grindingly depressing Glascow estate in the 70s. The family home has been designed around the word 'misery' and one of James's few friends has drowned, a death that haunts him. Into his dark world comes Margaret and a relationship develops which provides the two of them with an escape from the previously relentless grimness of their young lives, and a mutual solice.