The protagonist, Hugh, returns to Ireland from Australia, where he has been living for the past fifty years. In his mind, he is going ‘home’, which strikes him as strange, given that he has been living in Australia for two-thirds of his life. Yet, ‘going home’ for him is not just about reliving childhood experiences and the pleasures of youth. It is also mixed up with feelings of guilt and anger.
On arrival, he quickly realizes that his brother Rory is at death’s door and he decides to stay to help Joan, their sister, nurse him through his final days. This gives him the opportunity to make some amends for his past neglect and relieve his feelings of guilt. However, a long-kept secret is revealed to him that changes everything. It is a story about someone who has lived in ‘exile’ all his life and has come home to a multitude of ghosts, both living and dead, and his attempts to put them to rest.