At sixteen, Cahal, an illegitimate orphan, makes the journey from Dublin to the west of Ireland to his grandfather's farm. After ten years in an institution, he is finally free to return to the small village of his birth. His tyrannical grandfather soon arranges for him to marry-for money. But Cabal's feelings for a local girl with a past are strong. In his writing, Macken captures the isolation and poverty of the village-its closed attitudes, its frozen social mores. and its deeply unforgiving nature. 'Comic and touching by turn: the anecdotes glide as smoothly as summer streams; the farming scenes are vividly done; it is all skilfully told with excellent dramatic moments.' "Spectator".