A novel of love and war, of legacy and fate, of parallel and colliding worlds.
Nora McMahon is a young Irish girl raised by her grandfather on a County Clare tenant farm on the eve of the Great War. Her parents were executed following a failed local rebellion and she inherits their penchant for adventure and their dreams of a free Ireland. She is a witness to the radical political change overtaking Ireland and struggles to find her way and prove her worth in the nascent Irish republican world.
Edward Eldridge is a wealthy young captain in the British Army eager to debate the erupting war in Europe and the irksome “Irish Question” from the comfort of opulent London mansions. He is frustrated with his parents’ reluctance to support a call to arms and welcomes the brewing war and a chance to break free from the restrictions of his privileged life.
The mounting crises across Europe shape both Nora and Edward’s lives and set their worlds on a collision course. Though their perspectives set them up to be enemies, they share a youthful passion that makes them more similar than different. As they both pursue their own notions of freedom, they are unable to imagine the worlds they will help to create.