Tommy Lee was born in the mid-'30s on the wrong side of the blanket in a small village in the west of Ireland. He was reared in a convent run by the nuns of the Poor Clare's till he was eight years of age. He was then fostered to a couple, who, he found, were of intense hatred and deep devotion to all under one roof. Caught up in tragedy, misunderstanding and emigration, he finds himself on the run from the law, all alone in this world. Accused of double murders of his foster parents with no alibi, he jumps the first fishing boat to Cobh. Lying under a night's fishing catch for eight hours, he then escapes. For the next 20 years, he lives in the shadows...