Patrick Jackson lies on his deathbed in Derry and recalls a family
history marked by secrecy and silence, and a striking absence of
conventional pieties. He remembers the death of an eight-year-old girl,
whose body was found on reclaimed land called Inch Levels on the
shoreline of Lough Swilly. And he is visited by his beloved but troubled
sister Margaret and by his despised brother-in-law Robert, and by Sarah,
his hard, unchallengeable mother. Each of them could talk about events
in the past that might explain the bleakness of their relationships, but
leaving things unsaid has become a way of life. Guilt and memory beat
against them, as shock waves from bombs in Derry travel down the river
to shake the windows of those who have escaped the city.