After losing two young sisters in a house fire, in an accident caused by drink and cigarettes, Rós and her family leave their home to live in a new council house. In the local community school she befriends Cormac, a middleclass boy who is trying to come to terms with his own problems; and encounters bullies who are every bit as bad as the bullies she has left behind in her school.

On Leic Island off the Atlantic coast of Ireland, Caitriona's only worry is how she and her friends will spend the long school summer holidays ahead of her - and how to make an impression on the handsome Seamas, of course. She is delighted to be offered a summer job woorking with Séamas in the diving school. But, in spite of her efforts, he doesn't show much interest in her. Hoping to make him jealous, she goes on a date with another man on the island, a young man who seems very interested in her, and with that begins an adventure that leaves Caitríona and her friends in grave danger.