The Society of Irishmen was founded in Belfast, with the dream to bury religious divisions, end the rule of the antiquated and corrupt Ascendary centred on Dublin Castle, and sever all connections with England. From the first, the Society was riddled with informers while the government played cat-and-mouse. Most of the Society's leaders were scattered or banished, and of the book's four principal rebels - Wolfe Tone, Hamilton Rowan, Drennan and Lord Edward Fitzgerald - the latter gave the movement, as it headed towards the doomed rebellion of 1798, flourishes of romantic but hopelessly inadequate leadership. Drawing on the journals and letters of the four main rebels, the author aims to capture their characters as they experienced conspiracies, trials, betrayals, flights, wild Atlantic crossings, the scoldings of long-suffering wives, the ironic perceptions of well-rewarded informers, and terrible, drawn-out deaths.