Includes a new introduction by the author.

Originally published: Edinburgh : Polygon, 1986.

When she was ten, Mary Miller was pushed into the hot burn--a torrent of warm-chemical run-off from the local coal mine. Her hair turned white and she was subsequently regarded with a mixture of fear and fascination by her God-fearing community. Years later she is a single mother and is having a faltering affair. Her son Sandy has fallen in love with a homeless girl, but the search for happiness isn't easy, and both mother and son are gradually being forced to come to terms with a dark secret from Mary's childhood.