In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy left America on a tour of Europe. One leg of his tour brought him to the shores of Ireland, and the city of Cork.

Mary Horgan has little or no interest in these facts. Nineteen, and living on the north side of Cork with her parents, she has had few boyfriends, but none worse than Willy O’Reilly, a man tormented by his own demons; a dead father and bedridden mother.

Mary’s life is transformed when she meets Dean Reynolds, an American visiting the city. Their romance sparks a catalogue of events which will threaten to tear her close family apart and bring down the most powerful man on the planet.