It's snowing outside, and Tom's neighbour Gary is building a snowman with his dad. Tom's own dad is ill, upstairs in bed again. He isn't strong and boisterous, like dads ought to be. So Tom builds his own snow creation: a cold, snarling ice cat. It's strange...he didn't mean to build an ice cat. It just kind of forced its way out of the snow, rather like the animal sculptures his dad carves when he's well. But Tom's mum says his dad will never be fully well again, and inside, this turns Tom's heart to ice. He even begins to imagine he sees his vicious ice cat, prowling in the night. One morning, in a fit of rage and frustration, Tom destroys Gary's snowman and his own ice cat. It takes a frank conversation with his dad before he is able to build a new, friendlier snow cat with Gary, and finally feel the ice inside him melt...