In which a brave and resolute child shoulders the entire burden of care for her aged grandfather as they embark upon a weary and uncertain journey along a quiet canal, their fragile safety momentarily entrusted to boisterous yet civil boatmen. Amidst drifting mist and the rising smoke of a great manufacturing town, they find themselves enveloped by a confounding new world of noise and rain, casting them as strangers in a strange and bustling place.