Arthur Lane is a young boy with profound cerebral palsy, who is unable to walk, talk, feed himself, or sit unsupported. He is abandoned in a grim hospital in the north of England in 1921, at the age of seven. His family believe they are sending him to a specialised facility for the good of all, where they will have the equipment and expertise to give him a better life. In reality he is subject to extreme cruelty and neglect. Through his decades-long ordeal, his faith in the 'Skallagrigg' – a special being with a keen empathy for people with his disabilities – sustains him, and stories grow up about Arthur and the Skallagrigg.