A young American wounded war hero, fresh from the trenches of the Western Front, narrates this story of Ireland's War of Independence (1919-21). Conn O'Farrell journeys to the land of his birth to uncover the circumstances of his older brother's death. He learns that both his brother and his father in America had been engaged in running guns and ammunition for the Republican cause. O'Farrell, a journalist, meets Michael Collins, leader of the insurgency against the British occupation, and under the pseudonym, Correspondent X, covers the guerrilla war for Ireland's freedom.