A bored young man lives in the desert of a post-war council estate with no future and no idea what to do with his life.
The arrest of a school friend for robbery presents him with a chance for escape. He becomes a stoker on a merchant tramp steamer and thereafter goes with lifes current wherever it takes him. Chameleon-like, he changes his identity as circumstances demand. Slowly, life experiences fashion him, but into what? Where next?