Set in the near future. As a consequence of an ecumenical movement (Vatican Council IV), the Catholic Church has joined other religions and has eliminated much of the original dogma of Catholicism. A group of Irish monks rebel against this situation and react back to the past: they begin to say Mass in Latin and act according to traditional Catholic dogma. So, Rome decides to send a representative to investigate what is happening

Against the backdrop of the bombing campaign in Britain and the Northern Ireland Hunger Strike, a young woman joins a terrorist operation which takes three people hostage. Over the days of their captivity, she questions her own involvement and the history of Ireland which has brought her to this point.

After 18 years as a friar, Peter is no longer sure of his vocation. It is a happy life, maybe too much so, and now he has met Clare. Will his doubts run away with him? Runaway friars are officially "fugitives" who must be persuaded back to their order. Author Sean Walsh fled the Franciscan order to become first a journalist, then a playwright and is now a radio drama producer in Ireland.

A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor; only, someone finds him out and exposes him to the gang...

Friel contrasts Gar's cloistered emotional life with his gregarious social persona by portraying him as two distinct characters, a public self (Donal McCann) and a private self (Des Cave).