Set on the Emerald Isle in 1916 during the Easter Uprising, this is the story of a love affair between a "rebel" and an "Ascendancy Irish lass" whose love overcomes the hatred between Catholic and Protestant that continues to tear Ireland apart today.

This love story is told against a complex background of adventure and intrigue as the author paints a multicolored picture of unforgettable characters with varying beliefs and loyalties. You'll meet lords and ladies, IRA terrorists, priests and ministers-both kind and evil-and plain country folk. So lively is Dillon's style, you'd swear you can taste the poteen (homemade whisky distilled by destitute widows) and smell the fragrant peat fires.

The author gives a new twist to an old plot device, amnesia, when the protagonist wakes up to find himself half-drowned in icy cold water with a horrible wound in his chest and no notion of who, what or where he is. As he puts himself together again, he also has a new look at his country and finally realizes that only love can bring people together. As a great poet, W. H. Auden, said, "We must love one another or die."