In a North Sea storm a drilling rig sinks, taking with it the ten kilos of hashish that Calum Bean has hidden in its superstructure. When the bankrollers decide that Cal's kneecaps are a reasonable forfeit, his cousin, renegade army officer Seb MacCoinneach, comes to the rescue. 

But Seb has an agenda of his own. Turned down by the SAS, in fierce competition with his brother and in a bitter feud with his father, he has conceived a plan that will make fools of all those who have rejected him. Spurred on by his half-sister Madelene, a ruthless manipulator, Sen starts upon a lethal game involving Afghan heroin, Chechen smugglers and Ulster paramilitaries, all in the name of wealth and freedom. And he to make it work, he needs Cal with him.

From the remote Scottish island where they grew up to the Irish borderlands, and the Republican ghettos of West Belfast, Cal finds his loyalty tested again and again, until finally he must make a fatal choice.