Ireland is at a crossroads of history and culture, and so are the characters in Joyce's collection of fifteen stories in this book. The initial stories are narrated by child protagonists, and later deal with the lives and concerns of progressively more mature characters. The stories centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences self-understanding or illumination.

Two years have passed since the events of the bestselling Christine Falls, and much has changed for Quirke, the irascible, formerly hard-drinking Dublin pathologist. His beloved Sarah is dead, the Judge lies in a convent hospital paralyzed by a devastating stroke, and Phoebe, Quirke's long-denied daughter, has grown increasingly withdrawn and isolated.

With much to regret from his last inquisitive foray, Quirke ought to know better than