The story is set in the university town of Baile an Chaisil, a thinly disguised Galway City, in 1948, the year Ireland declared itself a republic and withdrew from the Commonwealth. But Máirtín Ó Mealóid, a pub-crawling university student, and his disreputable friends are too busy drinking and lusting after girls to pay much attention to this significant political development.

But on this fateful weekend, Máirtín can no longer put off vital decisions about his family, his women or his studies.