The MacDonoghs, Lords of Duhallow, learn of the death of King James and the accession of his heir, now King Charles I. Their fears that his rule of Ireland could be crueller than that of his father's is compounded when Charles appoints Lord Wentworth as his Lord Deputy. This imposed tyranny looks likely to sequester their lovely patrimony, and the family flirts with the idea of rebellion. Soon they are involved to the very hilt, and the more so as Civil War breaks out in Ireland and then in England.