What would you do if you were thirteen, and your aunt wanted to marry you off to get rid of you? Kura decides to steal her uncle's flightless riding-bird, the vicious and unpredictable Plume, and set off to find her real parents. This is Antarctica, ten thousand years ago, when for a short time just the coastal strip is ice-free. It's a bit like prehistoric New Zealand - all the evolutionary niches have been filled by birds, and the main predator...