Spike and Heaton are the unlikeliest pair: two loners who have found each other. Taciturn, competent, unreadable, Heaton is someone we are instinctively afraid of. In contrast, his side-kick Spike is manic, child-like, unstoppable: someone we instinctively worry about. But when Spike commits a terrible crime, Heaton decides to stand by him – an act of astonishing, almost foolhardy loyalty. There begins a chase across a vast Northern landscape of moors, rivers and dark woods, the increasingly exhausted fugitives being hunted not by the police but by a posse of farmers intent on revenge.

As exhaustion and hunger take hold, Heaton injures his leg and the roles are reversed. Suddenly Heaton needs Spike’s loyalty. But as the farmers close in, Spike is forced to decide whether to stand by his wounded friend or run for the safety of the city.