During the Second World War, Gavin Burke defies his nationalist family to join the Air Raid Precautions unit in Belfast, his rebellion against the religion and politics of his father. The War offers Gavin a new life, war was freedom, freedom from futures, and freedom from the suffocating society of his youth. He makes new friends, discovers poetry and new experiences. Then the War comes to Belfast and Gavin is thrown into a devastating air raid where he must prove himself if he is to escape his fathers world.