A deadly disease is sweeping the world and nobody knows how to stop it. Movie theatres and swimming pools are shut and schools are closed. People are discouraged from gathering in large groups at the beach. Twelve-year-old Tom Mitchell can't even see his best friend Charlie. He wonders when the lockdown is ever going to end. And then things get worse. It might all sound familiar. But this is New Zealand in 1937-38. The disease is infantile paralysis, or polio, and nobody knows where it will strike next. When even the adults are afraid, Tom finds refuge in his dream – to run in the Olympics like his hero, Olympic champion Jack Lovelock.