As 1995 dawns in the North of Ireland, Belfast is a city of army patrols, bombed-out buildings, and peace walls segregating one community from the other. But the IRA has called a ceasefire. So, its as good a time as any for Monty Collins and Father Brennan Burke to visit the city: Monty to do a short gig in a law firm, and Brennan to reconnect with family. And its a good time for Brennans cousin Ronan to lay down arms and campaign for election in a future peacetime government.
But the past is never past in Belfast, and it rises up to haunt them all: a man goes off a bridge on a dark, lonely road; a rogue IRA enforcer is shot; and a series of car bombs remains an unsolved crime. The trouble is compounded by a breakdown in communication: Brennan knows nothing about the secrets in a file on Montys desk. And Monty has no idea what lies behind a late-night warning from the IRA. With a smoking gun at the center of it all, Brennan and Monty are on a collision course and will learn more than they ever wanted to know about what passes for law in 1995 Belfast. An inscription on a building south of the Irish border says it all: Let justice be done though the heavens fall.