In the rural west of Ireland Peter Prendergast's brother Brian signs up to a radical form of religion soon after being released from prison. One day, the two brothers have a particularly violent disagreement. Peter leaves the house, to calm down. When he returns home he finds two policemen sitting at the front door of his farmhouse. They tell him his brother and mother are in hospital after being brutally attacked in the house. And he is the main suspect. Peter has to defend himself against a charge of murder and also protect the woman his brother willfully deceived and abandoned. Sergeant Timothy O'Mahony tries to make sense of a savage killing in a story that comes to an unexpected climax.