Rhodes Scholar Jeri O’Donnell’s plans for a scholarly life are shattered by a tragedy that kills her beloved cousin, Fiona, and sends Jeri to the Armagh Women’s Prison. In Armagh, Provo volunteer Jill Leary attempts to recruit the young American for the IRA, while the mysterious Arkadia O’Malley seeks nothing less than Jeri’s soul. She chooses to embrace Fiona’s struggle as her own and joins the Provisional IRA. Cool under pressure and fierce in action, Jeri becomes the ideal urban soldier whether in Rotterdam, Belgrade or Belfast.

          Attracting women has never been difficult for the young woman from South Boston, but Jeri’s inconsolable remorse over Fiona’s death makes intimacy virtually impossible, and the violence of her life only drives her further from human comfort. Although she can never quit questioning the morality of her actions, Jeri has a taste for fighting that she once hoped to leave behind in the streets of Southie. When a bomb in Belfast explodes early, either through accident or design, the resulting carnage plunges Jeri into a despair that forces her to reconsider what choices, if any, are left to her.