Paddy Meehan has been called to the mortuary to identify the body of her former boyfriend, reporter Terry Hewitt, found hooded and shot through the head -- the classic marks of an IRA killing, although they deny any involvement. Then, to Meehan's surprise, she discovers that Hewitt has left her his house in the country and all his notes. Things have been going well for Paddy: the single mother has finally moved out of her family home and has traded the daily crime game for a weekly column. But Terry's death makes her put her own life and that of her five-year-old son in serious danger as she digs deeper into its murky implications.