Ireland 1949. A woman gives birth to twins, but poverty forces her to place the two boys in a Catholic orphanage. One twin dies as a result of abuse by Christian monks, while the other, Red Dock, survives and plunges into the criminal underworld of Dublin. Red Dock's Machiavellian campaign begins with the kidnapping of a baby. It is the child of the police officer who once brought the brothers to the orphanage. The kidnapped Lucille now faces the same cruel fate. However, Red Dock is far from finished with his treacherous attack against a world that rejected him and his brother. In "Variations of Revenge," Seamus Smyth enters dark labyrinths filled with shattered souls, whose amorality and obsession can be traced back to the deprivations and abuses of early childhood, set against the backdrop of a sacred church.