Frank Cottrell Boyce’s debut children’s novel, Millions (2004), is a critically acclaimed story that blends humor, suspense, and reflection on faith and family. The novel centers on two brothers, Damian and Anthony Cunningham, who are grappling with the recent death of their mother. Their lives are upended when a bag containing over £200,000 in stolen cash literally falls into their laps. The story is set in a fictional near future where the United Kingdom is about to replace the pound with the euro, leaving the boys with only 17 days to spend the fortune before it becomes worthless. This ticking-clock premise drives the narrative as the brothers argue over the money’s purpose, exploring themes including How Wealth Complicates Moral Decision-Making, Imagination as a Path to Healing, and The Moral Ambiguity of the Adult World.

An accomplished screenwriter, Frank Cottrell Boyce originally conceived of Millions as a film script. The premise was inspired by the real-world introduction of euro banknotes and coins in 2002 and the extensive public debate in the UK about whether to adopt the new currency. The book won the 2004 Carnegie Medal, the most prestigious award for children’s literature in the UK. Boyce adapted his own work into a screenplay for the 2004 film of the same name, directed by Danny Boyle.

This guide is based on the 2005 HarperTrophy edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of bullying, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

Damian Cunningham, a fourth-grade boy with an encyclopedic knowledge of Catholic saints, narrates the story of how he and his older brother Anthony found a bag containing £229,370 in cash, with only 17 days to spend it before England’s currency switches to the euro on Euro Day, December 17. The story is set in Portland Meadows, a new housing development near a railway line, where the boys have recently moved with their father after their mother’s death.

On their first day at their new school, Damian takes his father’s instruction to “[b]e excellent” literally, lecturing his class about saints during an art exercise on “People We Admire.” His teacher, Mr. Quinn, struggles to redirect him. At lunch, a large boy named Barry takes Damian’s Pringles. Anthony intervenes by casually mentioning that their mother is dead, which prompts Barry to return the food. Anthony later tells Damian this tactic “works every time” (8).

The boys’ mother, who worked at a Clinique makeup counter, died after a long illness. Their father works long hours to cover the mortgage and has lost the cheerful general knowledge he once displayed. Damian builds a hermitage out of cardboard boxes near the railway tracks, inspired by saints who lived in unusual dwellings. He brings along a tube of tinted moisturizer that belonged to his mother. His pursuit of mortification, the practice of self-denial for spiritual purposes, leads him to sleep on the floor, walk barefoot, and stuff holly into his shirt. When Damian’s teacher discovers the holly and the scratches, he requests a psychological assessment, which alarms Damian’s father.

At the evaluation, a therapist conducts word-association exercises to which Damian gives saint-related answers. On the way home, his father snaps at him to stop talking about saints. That night, Damian goes to his “hermitage” and accidentally locks himself out of the house. He whispers a prayer. A freight train screams past, and a bag stuffed with banknotes falls off the train.

Damian rushes to get Anthony. They count the money, and Anthony insists they keep it secret from their father. They realize that, with 17 days until the UK switches to the euro (Euro Day), they face an urgent deadline to spend a fortune in soon-to-be-worthless currency. Anthony begins spending freely, buying drinks for classmates and ordering pizza for the family. Their father is moved nearly to tears by the gesture.

Their spending accelerates, creating an economic boom among their classmates. Damian has visions of saints. St. Clare of Assisi appears in his hermitage, and Damian asks if she has encountered a “St. Maureen,” his mother’s name, but Clare has not. A vision of St. Francis urges Damian to help the poor. The brothers clash: Damian wants to give the money away, while Anthony proposes buying a house as an investment. Damian takes unhoused people to Pizza Hut and secretly stuffs £7,000 through the mail slot of their neighbors, three Mormon missionaries whom Damian believes are poor. They promptly buy plasma-screen televisions and appliances, leaving Anthony furious.

One day, a man with a glass eye appears at Damian’s hermitage, asking about money. Anthony intervenes, giving the man only the family’s spare-change bottle. He warns Damian that money makes people dangerous.

A woman named Dorothy visits the school to collect the children’s soon-to-be-worthless coins for charity projects like building wells. Damian secretly puts £3,000 into the bin. When the suspiciously large donation is discovered, Anthony claims they stole the money and cries about their dead mother, sending the adults into a panic. Outside, Dorothy introduces herself to the boys’ father, who laughs genuinely for the first time in a long while.

Anthony then tells Damian the truth: A news website reports that thieves hijacked a freight train carrying millions in old sterling to be incinerated, stuffing cash into bags and throwing them from the train. Their bag is one of the missing drops. Damian is devastated to learn that the money was stolen, not sent by God.

Dorothy begins visiting the family, teaching them to make lasagna and filling the house with warmth. Their father seems happier. Anthony, however, is hostile, suspecting that Dorothy is connected to the robbers and resenting her presence. When the Mormons’ house is burgled, Anthony insists the brothers carry the money at all times.

During the school nativity play, the man with the glass eye appears backstage and quietly demands the money. Damian flees the school. He rides a bus to the family’s old, empty house and hides the money in the loft. His father and Anthony track him down, and Damian confesses everything. Dad says they will hand it in, since the government planned to burn it anyway, and drives them home.

They arrive to find the house ransacked. Exhausted and furious, Dad decides to keep the money. Dorothy, who had gone to the nativity play with Dad and was still with them, supports the plan, and they count the cash together. That night, the man with the glass eye drops through the attic hatch and instructs Damian to open the front door the following night after the money has been converted. Later, Dorothy drives off with the money, causing Dad to panic, but she returns with a car purchased for cash and £2,000 already changed at the bank. The family splits up across Manchester to convert money before banks close, managing to change £132,000 into euros.

Back home, they paper Anthony’s bedroom wall with the remaining old banknotes. Anthony confronts Damian, asking whether Damian wants Dorothy there instead of their mother. That night, the man with the glass eye texts Damian that he is coming. Someone knocks on the door, and Damian thinks it is the man. He opens the front door to find hundreds of people who have heard about the money and have desperate requests. Damian grabs the remaining old money and slips out the back. Police arrive to disperse the crowd, and the community policeman catches the man with the glass eye inside the house.

At the railway embankment, Damian sets fire to the remaining pound notes. His mother appears on the other side of the railroad tracks, watching him. She tells him Anthony has a good heart but does not know where it is, and she says Damian will need to be good to him. Damian asks if she is a saint. She confirms she performed a miracle. When he asks what it was, she replies, “It was you” (241). A train passes between them, but she is still there on the other side. He runs across and hugs her. She whispers to be good to Anthony and is gone.

Anthony finds Damian; he saw their mother, too, and asks what she said to Damian. Damian tells him that she was pleased with them. Back home, Dorothy confesses she kept back €6,000. Dad admits he hid 10,000 in dollar conversions. Anthony produces €4,345 from his dressing-gown pocket. Damian is the only one who kept nothing, and because of that, Dad lets Damian decide what to do with the combined €20,345. Damian chooses to fund 14 hand-dug wells in northern Nigeria.