"Any money for Mr. Punch?"For fifteen years, Caleb and his father have roamed southern England with little to their names but the signet ring his father inherited and the theater and puppets with which they stage popular, raunchy Punch and Judy shows."She will help you. Tell her she must."One summer day in 1752, Pa is convicted of a theft he didn't commit and sentenced to transportation to the colonies in America. From gaol, Caleb's father sends him to the family he never knew he had: an aunt on the coast."Filthy thing! How can you bear to have him in the house?"His welcome at her house is strange, and her neighbors and stepdaughter seem to see only Caleb's dark skin."I found him. On the beach. He's dead."When Caleb finds a body washed up on shore, he stumbles into something much bigger than a man's death in the high water.