Initially the context of the story is the conflict in Ireland and in some
ways the troubles of Lorna and her family reflect that situation.
Lorna Donnelly is the eldest in a family of four children: Catholics
living in a Loyalist region of Belfast. The story originates at the time of
the first IRA ceasefire and culminates about the time of the Peace Accord
some 37 years later. Mr. Donnelly is killed by the IRA and his wife decides
to migrate with her children to England. She meets and marries Jimmy
Ungerside a butcher. Jimmy is a serial child abuser and to varying degrees
the whole family suffer at his hands, especially Lorna. The effect on the
girl’s development and later on her career is seen as an echo in tandem
of the ‘Troubles’. The same is also true of her sister and two brothers.
Each chapter includes a contemporaneous news report and an excerpt from
Lorna’s diary each linked by some similar notion of abuse.
Lorna eventually marries but the episodes that torment her psychology
continue despite concentrated periods of treatment. It is not until she is
made aware of another significant cause that there is finally some hope of
real recovery.