In this compelling book, Llywelyn tells the story of charming young woman, Ursula Halloran, who comes of age in the 1920s, and experiences the passions and pains of the times in a way that brings them alive for every reader. The horror and tragedy of civil war give way to a repressive Catholic state in which married women cannot hold jobs, divorce is illegal, and the IRA becomes a band of outlaws still devoted to and fighting for a Republic that never lived. Ursula, an idealist, believes in a fiercely independent Ireland. She falls in love, bears a child out of wedlock, and in the war years finds fulfilment running her family farm in neutral Ireland.