In 1840s Britain, the Industrial Revolution has brought advances in technology and manufacturing. For the gentry, it means bigger chimneys on their houses. For poor, young boys, it sometimes means becoming a soot merchant's climbing boy. Jack is one such climbing boy. Born into a life of unlimited wealth and opportunities but through a cruel twist of fate he is abandoned and eventually taken on as a climbing boy by the village chimney sweep. Like many other poor young climbing boys, Jack sadly contracts what is known as soot wart, a disease that eventually takes his life. Although his life is a short one, it is in the last few months of his life that he comes to learn what it means to have a family and to be loved. A love that continues beyond his death.