Can a childhood be rescued? Set in 2010s Edinburgh, after a breakdown prompted by a stillbirth and her husband’s subsequent infidelity, Iona becomes a prison volunteer. She’s a “failed” artist in her late thirties and facing the prospect of remaining childless, but the suicide of her favourite student - a heavily tattooed and artistically talented young inmate named Joe - sets off a chain of events that lead to Iona fostering, then adopting a ten-year-old boy. The boy insists on being called “Dog.” Will Iona overcome her own childhood issues to master the litany of complications which Dog brings?