David McMaster, a burned out, retired lecturer, returns to Belfast on discovering a cryptic, posthumous note from his friend Roddy, whom he last saw in Northern Ireland 40 years previously. In 1965, David, then a high-flying Oxford graduate, is recruited by Sir John Lockwood to help him look for a site for a new university in Ulster. But what seems like an interesting assignment turns into a tragedy not only for David but also for Catherine,...