The place: the violent ridden streets of Limerick. The time: now. The story: two brothers Jim and frank Breslin - one a priest, the other a cop - who struggle in the mean streets of Stab City to exorcise their demons and lay their pasts to rest. They are good men deep down but they are complicated... and they are angry.
Farther Jim teaches boxing and is not afraid to mix it; which can be unfortunate given that he has a quick temper. (A characteristic that leads to a young pupil having his hands smashed and his career - and way out of the city - ruined). Just what is it that he is really fighting?
His brother Frank, the main character of the piece, has a failed marriage and two kids; that's as well as an unearthly appetite for prostitutes, alcohol and cocaine. Although the brothers seem to have little in common it soon transpires that at the least they have a common enemy: Ray Dillon - the biggest gang boss in Limerick and a man who is willing to do anything - anything - to safeguard his young sons future. And Jim and Frank have a common object of affection: Nina, the eastern European mother of one, the ballerina turned lap dancer, the valued employee of Ray.
The real action kicks off with vicious murder of Frank's partner Charlie (leaving behind a widow and an unborn child). As Frank embarks on his mission to track down the murderer, the city erupts in an inter-racial gang war. It's white against black, Irish against African; Ray Dillon against the mysterious gunrunner Bob X.
Frank's hunt for the killer becomes a hunt for a lot of other things - reconciliation with his kids, his public and private fight against alcohol and drugs, the bringing of the peace to the city, the expression of the love for his brother and a chance of a new life with the beautiful Nina.
And thus does frank become part of the mayhem that leads to a bloody showdown with Ray in which he puts Jim and Nina's and his own kids' lives on the line.
As in the great Shakespearean tragedies, when the smoke has cleared we take a deep breath and ask; was it worth it? What have we learned? Do we ever learn?
But most of all this is a story about love, albeit love expressed in fists and flames and bullets and cries of pain.
