A death in the present-a killing in the past.

After twenty years away, Jo Devereux flies home to Ireland for her mother's funeral - the mother she hasn't spoken to for more than two decades. Every minute there reminds her of all the reasons she left and she has no desire to reacquaint herself with her home village. Or with Rory O'Donovan, her lost love.

Then, she reads her mother's will. Her inheritance is a chest full of letters and journals, written by her grandmother and great-aunt, that answer a long held secret. Who murdered her great-uncle in the Irish Civil War.. and why? How did what an uprising for Irish freedom and independence degenerate into a bitter civil war where neighbor turned against neighbor, and family against family- leaving a legacy of lies, secrets, and silences for generations to come?

As Jo unearths the bitter, buried history she shares with Rory she finally understands why their love was doomed from the start. But what about now? Can she stay true to both her heart and her heritage? She knows from her own life how the wild energy of rebellion can carry someone away... but what happens after the rising?