The plot is set around the Northern Irish reporter Dan Starkey who gets entangled in a web of political intrigue and Irish sectarian violence, at the same time as Northern Ireland is set to elect a new Prime Minister.

Northern Irish columnist Dan Starkey and American journalist Charles Parker are sent out to cover the upcoming elections, in which the charismatic, former victim of the war, Michael Brinn seems the obvious winner, campaigning on a platform of disarmament and peace between the warring factions in Northern Ireland.

Before this, however, Starkey is caught cheating on his wife Patricia with Margaret, a young art student.

He also makes the startling discovery that Margaret's former boyfriend is the feared terrorist Patrick "Cow Pat" Keegan.

Starkey also gets himself shot at by paramilitaries that night, but he is saved by Lee Cooper, a nurse-by-day, stripper-by-night.

While Starkey is at Cooper's apartment, she plays a piece of classic music, by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.

However, it turns out that Parker has been held hostage by Keegan and his goons, and that the meeting was set up to trap Starkey.

This does not seem to be satisfactory for Keegan, but luckily for Starkey, he and his wife are saved in the last minute by Cooper, who storms in dressed as a nun wearing guns.

Starkey goes to visit the priest, listens to the tape with him, and finds that it is a recording of Brinn admitting to having planted the bombs in the terrorist attack he claims to have been a victim of.

A British civil servant urges Starkey not to print his story, fearing for the consequences if the truth about Brinn gets out.