This is the third volume of a trilogy about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, set mainly in Derry and in Houston, Texas, between 1966 and 1981. It's told in first person by Brendan Kinsella, from the age of 10 to the age of 25.

This volume begins during the hungers strikes of 1981, when Bobby Sands was protesting being treated as a common criminal instead of a political prisoner. Brendan is called home in the middle of it all, despite the British forces still interested in interrogating him over the bombing that injured him at the end of volume one.

This part of the trilogy deals with him navigating the growing horror of the hunger strikes, learning he's been lied to about Joanna's death since he left Derry, and trying to determine the direction of his life from this point...even in the face of growing danger.