In second-century Britain, Macey, a former soldier prone to bouts of frenzied violence, wanders the countryside with a group of deserters from the Roman army, contending with the threat of deadly local tribesmen. Fifteen centuries later, during the English Civil War, Thomas Rowley is holed up in a safe house, hiding from the ruthless Royalist troops besieging his village. In the present day, Tom, a precocious, love-struck, mentally unstable teenager, is struggling to cope with the imminent departure for London of his girlfriend Jan. These are the three stories woven together in Red Shift, Alan Garner�s masterpiece of virtuosic counterpoint and brisk historical evocation. Vastly remote in time, each narrative takes place around the mysterious hill of Mow Cop in Southern Cheshire, a region Garner brings vividly and enchantingly to life. By turns riveting, meditative, and deeply moving, Red Shift is a unique piece of storytelling about chance and fate, freedom and predestination, visionary awakening and destructive madness.