Traces the experiences of a young freedom fighter in mid-nineteenth-century Dublin whose best friend and daughter escape the potato famine by moving to America before their respective descendants move toward a fateful convergence.
In rural Ireland in 1843, Padraig Aherne leaves behind his best friend, Brendan, and girlfriend, Brigid, and sets off to Dublin to rally for his country's independence, unaware that Brigid is pregnant with his child. Once he reaches the big city, a dangerous mistake forces him on a ship destined for Calcutta. As the potato famine devastates their home, Brendan escapes with Padraig's young daughter across the ocean, aboard one of the infamous "coffin ships" headed for America. As two family trees expand, moving towards a disastrous convergence from opposite sides of the world, Padraig's descendants struggle to define themselves and find their places in the world.