This powerful story is a tale of the gritty, hard working North East of England, in the first years of the twentieth century, when life had never been harder. Set among the dockers and workers of the close-knit Irish community, this is a novel of hard times and violence, but also of the powerful bonds of family and a strong Catholic faith that can unite the group against a rough and hostile world. Using the theme of Tom Casey, who is imprisoned for a rape he did not commit, and a campaigning young solicitor determined to see him freed, this is a panoramic picture of a tough, warm hearted and sometimes brutal world of the past that is today but a distant memory - but one that should never be forgotten.