Long before Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly came to the colourful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, young Surgeon- lieutenant O'Reilly answered the call of duty to serve in World War II. As a ship's doctor on the HMS Warspite, Fingal faces danger upon the high seas. With German bombers a constant threat, the future has never been more uncertain.

Decades later, O'Reilly is content to mend the bodies and souls of his patients, but there are still changes and challenges aplenty. A difficult pregnancy, as well as an old colleague badly in denial, tests O'Reilly and his young partner, Barry Laverty. But even with all that occupies him in the present, can O'Reilly ever truly let go of the ghosts from his past?