Oliver suffers horrendous abuse by his mother as a child. He grows into a vengeful psychopath. Sent to boarding school as a teenager, he is tormented with further abuse and acts of humilation. Extremely intelligent, he manages to intoxicate the school football team with grave consequences. Sent to prison, he engineers an escape with great loss of life.

Morag is an IRA courier and Claire a MI5 operator. Morag is on a mission of revenge for the death of her brother. Both Morag and Claire become disillusioned with the roles they are forced to play in Northern Ireland and flee to England pursued by their respective organisations.

Fate causes their paths to cross in a climatic ending to their stories.