Catnip Bill was a mysterious, old hermit who lived alone on a small island near Gloucester, Massachusetts. For Leland Parsons and his childhood friends, he was a source of both fear and fascination. They hid from him and followed him as he came and went from his island home - terrified of what he might do if he ever caught them.

In a quintessentially American tale, Parsons details the various adventures he and his friends embarked upon along John's Creek and among the marshes, clam flats and woods, where the goal was always to test oneself against the elements in an effort to better understand one's place in the world.

Catnip Bill was the greatest test of all. A phantom who lived in a reclusive manner that made no sense, and who seemed to belong nowhere - hence the fear and fascination he evoked.

Within his tale, Parsons returns, as an adult, to the place of his youth. Catnip is long gone, but Parsons has never forgotten him. And through one of the most harrowing descriptions of a shipwreck you are ever likely to read, he endows his old nemesis with a heartbreaking backstory and a place among his neighbors.