In 1980s Ireland, Róisín and Red bond as only two precocious and disaffected teenagers can. Soon Red is privy to the secret source of Róisín’s shame and anger: the father who has abandoned her and her mother to their damp house and never-ending strife. But what does Róisín know about why Red avoids going home to his own posh parents and house --- the house he soon flees forever? When a Christmas visit to her father reveals the devastating truth of his new life in London, Róisín tracks down Red and moves into his Pimlico squat. But the path he is now on is a disturbing one, and gradually they drift apart. And yet the great, never-consummated passion of her youth remains a visitation upon the years that follow.