Ardara is the story of two families, one living, one deceased. The O'Grady family, Danny, Mary, and infant Michael were forced to flee Ireland in the late 1800s. They came to North America. Settling in the village of Ardara they financially prospered, but the extremes of their personalities tore them apart. Following Danny and Mary's deaths, Michael inherited the family wealth, and when he died in 1949 his next-of-kin was his mentally challenged daughter, Bridget. But before Michael's death, the shrewd Alex Hartman seduced and impregnated Bridget, knowing that dictates of the time called for a speedy marriage to lessen the shame. It was Hartman's way of getting at the O'Grady money, but it didn't work. Michael saw through his scheme and willed his estate to Bridget's baby. Hartman then murdered Bridget and child to get what he wanted.
Mathew (Mattie) Armstrong came to Ardara as a summer student in 1969, and strange things began happening. He kept seeing Bridget O'Grady holding her baby. Through dreams, occurrences, and by talking to people that knew her when she was alive, he pieced together what had happened. Eventually he confronted the aging Hartman and justice was served in spectacular fashion.
Chapter one opens in present time, 1999, and Mattie Armstrong has returned to Ardara. He brought along his wife, Trisha. Their marriage was dying and he was desperate to save it. By telling the story of what had happened thirty years previous, and although the O'Gradys and Armstrongs had never met, both Trisha and Mattie were able to see that the paths to self-destruction ran parallel in both families. In an unexpected way good came from the telling.