The charming opportunistic thief and hippie Mahony always believed that his mother had abandoned him out of indifference in a Dublin orphanage in 1950. Twenty-six years later, he receives a letter that casts a completely different, brutal light on his mother's story. Mahony travels to his birthplace to find out what really happened back then. His eerily familiar face unsettles the locals from the start. Mahony stirs excitement among the women, curiosity among the men, and distrust among the pious. In uncovering the mystery of his mother's disappearance, he is assisted by the elderly Mrs. Cauley, a former actress. Fearless and outspoken, she loves nothing more than to poke around in the secrets and wounds of others. She is convinced that Mahony's mother was murdered. The unlikely pair devises a clever plan.