KES

Fifteen-year-old Billy lives with his mother and older half-brother, Judd. A loner, Billy likes to wander through the valleys and woodlands near his home. During one of his walks, he steals a young kestrel from its nest. He hides it in his house and feeds and trains it, having learned how to do so from a book he has stolen from a bookshop. One day, his brother entrusts him with the money he plans to bet at the horses, but Billy spends it on himself. Wild with anger, Judd tries to catch him, but Billy gets away. When he comes home later on, the kestrel is missing. Billy looks for it everywhere. He realizes that Judd has harmed it. After a violent confrontation with Judd and his mother, Billy finds his kestrel dead in the rubbish bin. He strokes it lovingly and then buries it.