The final book in Victor Canning's classic children's trilogy of life-affirming adventures. Freckled fugitive 'Smiler' finds his way to the farm of the and "The Duchess and " in North Devon, where he stays and tends to circus animals housed there for the winter. When a peregrine falcon, Fria, escapes, Smiler must search for ways of helping and recapturing the bird. In doing so, can he find solutions for the problem that has kept him in hiding from the police for so long?