In the seaside town of Bantry in the west of Ireland, the O'Donovans struggle with the humiliation and poverty of living under a colonial power until events impel them to turn their backs on Ireland and set out for America.
In June of 1964 in a small town in the Altiplano of Peru, Sister Mary Katherine--a young American nun afraid of her love for an Irish priest with whom she has been working--slips away from her convent with no money and no destination. Over the next eight days, she encounters both friendly and dangerous characters and travels an interior journey of memory and desire that leads her, finally, to a startling destination.