A woman passes as a man in order to work and survive in 19th century Ireland. Some thirty years after donning men's clothing, she finds herself trapped in a prison of her own making.

Gabriel and Gretta Conroy are enjoying a holiday party when Gretta begins to have poignant memories of a former lover who is deceased. Gabriel begins to see his life in an entirely new light with the shattering revelation of Gretta's secret past.

Major Sinclair Yeates is a retired English army officer who becomes a Resident Magistrate in pre-independence West Ireland. Living in a ramshackle country house surrounded by the community₂s eccentric inhabitants, Major Yeates struggles to apply judicial logic in a country where ₁the inevitable never happens, but the improbable frequently does.₂