Mags Perry has fled a loveless marriage and returned from England to 1970s Ireland, where she picks up what work she can find as a freelance journalist. Beautiful, intelligent and idealistic, her divorce has made her a pariah in traditional Irish society, but the burgeoning Women's Movement offers her an opportunity to join in the fight for a better, fairer republic -- and if possible, find a different kind of love along the way. Francis Strong leaves his provincial, working-class home for university, bringing with him an almost mythical notion of Dublin. It's the 70s, he's a literature student, he has his own bedsit. Freedom beckons -- but does he know what kind of freedom he is looking for? And is it to be found in the capital? Seemingly remote from such trivial human affairs is CJ, the one-time cabinet minister who is now in the political wilderness after getting mixed up in an arms scandal. Yet as he ruthlessly seeks a return to power, his decisions could affect -- for better or for worse -- the lives of everyone in Ireland.