In this gently humorous story, young, sensitive Brendan Harris learns much about life, family and the need to fit in while growing up during the 1940s in semi-rural Southern Ireland. Raised in a Protestant household and attending a private school in this predominantly Catholic country, Brendan stumbles his way through the confusion of social differences and sexual maturity while his mother, Alice, often embarrasses him with her good intentions among the local "poor"...which, all too often, end in total disaster.

Life brings the typical surprises for young boys turning into young men, as Brendan grows up fishing for 'pinkeens' and later learns his fair share about the opposite sex, and the delights and disappointments of coming of age.