In the late sixties the "Troubles" in Ireland, both North and South continued, with increasingly devastating results, whilst ordinary people lived through it, and prayed for an end to the terrible violence. In a sleepy small town called Glannock between Naas and Bray, a more pressing problem for the family Devlin is the funeral of the black sheep of the family, Thomas. The returning brother, Michael, finds his life in England has made him an outsider nowadays, having only returned for Chrisrmas and other family funerals. His curiosity about his recently deceased brother finds him at odds with his older brother Sean, who has seen the decline in Thomas over many years into an alcoholic, divorcee who spent much of his time in O'Sheas, the local pub. A secret that Michael has never been aware of explains Thoms's past. The beautiful Sheena, who works at times in her uncles pub, O'Shea's, falls in love with Michael and he is smitten. A search of his brother Thomas's delapidated farmhouse begins a trail of investigation that he never signed up for, but now he has a dilemma to deal with. What he discovers would break the family apart one way or another. The church have a lot to answer for and weaved into his investigations is the insidious presence of religious dogma and its views on "fallen" women. The death of a Dublin prostitute brings the loathsome DS Harrington to the sleepy town of Glannock, a place he hates with a passion, populated by the Culchies he finds irritable and obstructive. Harrington will frame the first person he can to get out of Glannock.