"Mad" Mary McArdle returns to Drogheda after a short spell in prison for something she'd rather forget. Back home, everything and everyone has changed. Her best friend, Charlene, is about to get married and Mary is maid of honor. When Charlene refuses Mary a 'plus one' on the grounds that she probably couldn't find a date, Mary becomes determined to prove her wrong.
Pig and Runt born on the same day, in the same hospital, moments apart. Twins, all but by bloodline. Inseparable from birth, they are almost telepathic. They are one, needing no one else, inhabiting a delicate, insular and dangerous world where they make their own rules and have their own language. But days before their 17th birthday the balance of their world begins to shift. Pig's sexual awakening and jealousy begins to threaten their private universe.
Out of prison at last, charismatic sociopath Neal tries to visit the baby son he's never seen, his indifferent parents, and the grave of his horse - not in that order. But mainly he wants to rejoin his old gang in the "pony club" subculture of the wild Northside- would be urban cowboys riding horses rough shod and bare back through the streets of Dublin. He then runs into the squealer who set him up.