'Six Storey House stands in its little garden like a potted palm: tall and thin and brownly dusty.

Once, a single family lived there. They kept servants in the loft, where other people keep luggage, and a cook in the cellar, where other people keep wine.

Now each floor has a different address: Flats 1 to 6, Six Storey House...' Dexi lives on the third floor with his mother, but he knows all his neighbours very well.

Each chapter follows the characters from a different flat number, bringing each character beautifully to life.

Gradually all the neighbours lives are woven more closely together until Dexi's final intervention in the form of chicken-pox, which sees the neighbours changing their lives - and their flats...