Cork, Ireland, 1923. When, one wet March morning, Reverend Mother Aquinas discovers a body at the gate of the convent chapel, she immediately sends for one of her former pupils, Police Sergeant Patrick Cashman, to investigate. Dead bodies ar not unusual in the poverty-stricken slums of Cork, but this one is dressed in evening finery; in her handbag is a dance program for the exclusive Merchants' Ball held the previous evening--and a midnight ticket...

An IRA terrorist who fought for Irish independence in 1910s Dublin tells his story. He is Henry Smart, son of a brothel bouncer, who becomes a street urchin after his father goes to jail and his mother turns senile. He joins the movement and rises in its ranks to participate in the 1916 Easter Rising, including the famous attack on the post office.