Colette McVeigh: mother...widow...terrorist. A woman who has lived the Republican cause for all of her 29 years. A woman whose brothers are both heavily involved at senior levels in the IRA, whose husband was killed by the British security forces. A woman who is now an informer for MI5.

Arrested in an aborted bombing attempt in London, Colette is given two choices: talk and see her children again, or stay silent and spend the rest of her life watching them grow up from behind the bars of a prison cell.

Unwillingly she is led to betray her past by her young MI5 handler, David Ryan, who always knew where his loyalties lay. But when he follows Colette to Belfast, those values are quickly sacrificed on the pyre of the province's history. As the peace process gathers pace and Ryan watches Colette put herself in increasing danger to keep her side of the bargain, he realises that his professional integrity is irrevocably and fatally compromised...