Francis Cauldhame is a sociopathic, isolated 17-year-old Scottish girl, living alone in a rural Scottish island with her father. She's not seen her mother in many years, the last time she saw her was when she came back to give birth to her younger brother, & left immediately afterward.

Theres is no official record of her birth, meaning her existence is largely unknown.

Unbeknowest to Francis, early in her childhood,, her father had been secretly feeding her male hormones to transition her from female to male after a dog attack, & raised her as a son called "Frank". He did this to distance himself from the women he felt had ruined his life.

Francis/Frank occupies her/his time with rituals, building dams, & maintaining an array of homemade weapons like a small catapult, pipe bombs, & a crude flamethrower for killing small animals around the island.

She/he takes long walks to patrol the island & occasionally gets drunk with her/his only friend, a dwarf. Otherwise, Francis/Frank has almost no contact with the outside world. She/he's haunted by the memory of a dog attack during her/his youth, which resulted in the loss of her/his genitalia. She/he resents others for her/his impotence, particularly women.

Francis/Frank has an older brother, Eric, who was sent to a psychiatric institution, having been arrested some years prior for arson & terrorising the local children by force-feeding them live maggots. Eric often calls her/him from a pay-phone, but Eric is extremely erratic; their conversations end badly, with Eric exploding in fits of rage. However, it's clear Franxis/Frank loves her/his brother.

When Francis/Frank was much younger, she/he killed 3 of her/his relatives: 2 cousins & her/his younger half-brother. She/he also exhumed the skull of the dog that castrated her/him, & uses it as part of her/his rituals.

Francis/Frank's father is distant & spends most of his time in his study, which he keeps locked at all times. Francis/Frank longs to know what is inside. She/he is used to being lied to by her/his father, who seemingly does it purely for his own amusement.