In Dublin, 1966, 23-year-old Jerry Burke quits his soul-destroying job in the Irish civil service to make a new life for himself in Canada and put behind him a dark secret from his republican past.

At the same time, he undertakes to find out what happened to his ancestor, Diarmuid Burke, who came to Canada in 1847, the most devastating year of the Irish potato famines.

Far as Jerry can discover, his ancestor did make it over to Canada, but why was he never heard from again?

The mystery finally starts to unravel in 1992, when Jerry learns that his ancestor kept a detailed diary account of his journey and that the journal has survived as an essential first-hand chronicle of this lamentable period in Irish history.