In moments of stress, psychiatric patient Simon Valentine has learned to become Stonebird, an unmoving, unfeeling statue.
Simon Valentine started life as a foundling, living in a Home. After a fire in which Simon is injured, he spends the next few years in hospital and a psychiatric unit. Now he is out in the Community and learning to cope, helped by his psychiatric nurse.
He battles his obsessive/compulsive behaviour and his claustrophbia, all due to his experiences at the orphanage. In moments of stress he has learned to become Stonebird, an unmoving, unfeeling statue.
After he sees an angel in the local Shopping Precinct and follows her, his life changes dramatically. In reality she is a forty year old woman called Angela, bringing up two children alone. She befriends him and eventually he becomes a lodger in her house. Difficulties arise, not least the problem of his stormy relationship with Angela's teenage son, his unrequited love for Angela and a small boy who goes missing.
When Angela falls in love with someone else, Simon feels unable to stay and moves to a small flat where he meets Elvi a fellow survivor. All seems to be going well but one day, trapped in a lift that has broken down, he loses control. This time, Stonebird has deserted him.