This is the personal story of Gavin Maxwell's boyhood, most of which he spent, in fact or in fancy, at the House of Elrig, a lonely, windswept house on the moorlands of Galloway. This is the house which, together with the influence of his relations, shaped his interest in living creatures and his love of wild country and wilderness, and led the way to the life he describes in Ring of Bright Water. It covers his boyhood, public school education in England, and return to Scotland.