This collection follows the fictional O'Sullivan family through the traumatic Famine years, 1845 to 1849. The main character is Rena, whose personal journey through the period represents the shock, struggle, devastation, and dubious resolution through death that marked the time. As the poems progress, there is a change in style that marks the passage from innocence to knowledge and the two-faced redemption of historical time. This is Maighread Medbh's second collection; her poems have appeared in The Virago Book of Wicked Verse and Ireland's Women: Writings Past and Present.