Lloyd George feared that Ireland might secede from the Empire. In his view, the Irish Job was to prevent this happening, and it must be carried out by a police force. Should the British Army become involved, all would be lost for Britain in Ireland. This novel is set at the time when precisely what Lloyd George feared came to pass. Dublin in 1920 is a city of spies and Irish Volunteers (Oglaigh na hEireann); its operatives embedded in the daily life of the United Kingdom. Michael Collins, a marked man, cycles openly round the city, while Sam Maguire, Head Centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in London, coolly orchestrates subversive activities in England. Ex-British Army man Stephen Waite takes up his new post as spy in Dublin. Kate Swanton, confident and self-assured, combines her role as solicitor's apprentice with that of Cumann na mBan Volunteer. Jack Mernagh, one time boy soldier in the British Army, is cynical and embittered after brutal war experiences in France. The lives of these three interweave across the months leading to the assassinations and reprisals in Croke Park by the British Auxiliaries on Bloody Sunday.