At the beginning, Cal Mc Cluskey is at the abattoir, where his father, Shamie, is working, because he wants to ask him for cigarettes. Cal does not like the disgusting atmosphere at the slaughterhouse.
Furthermore, the Preacher, a religious bigot, and Crilly, one of Shamie’s colleagues, are introduced.
The Mc Cluskeys - father and son - are the only Catholic family left in this Northern-Irish town. They resist to be forced out of their house although they are often threatened.
Later on it is said that Cal is unemployed. For this reason, he spends his days at home playing the guitar or listening to LPs.
On this day, he receives his Giro and goes to the post office to get his money. Afterwards, he walks over to the library where he notices a new librarian. When a customer calls her Marcella, he is shocked, apparently because he thinks he knows her. Confused, he leaves for his house but later returns with his admission card.
In the evening, Shamie comes home from work and his son has prepared supper. They notice that Protestants are observing them.
While they are eating, Cal tells his father about Marcella, who works at the library. Shamie knows her family name - Morton - and by now Cal realizes that she is the one he was thinking of.
The next day, Cal returns to the local library and gives back his tape. He spends the day at home but when it begins to rain in the afternoon, he comes back and waits on the opposite side of the road until Marcella leaves. He even follows her to her car.
Back home, his father is angry with him because he had not put on the dinner. While eating, Shamie tells Cal that Crilly wants him to come around in the evening.
Some time ago, Shamie had had a job for Cal at the abattoir, but he was not strong enough and Crilly got the job. Shamie’s embarrassment is the reason for many discussions between father and son.
Before Cal drives to Crilly’s house, he is disappointed: He had hoped to be forgotten because he was useless. He remembers his school time. Crilly has always been cruel to people ever since he was at school and both teachers and pupils feared him.
At Crilly’s, Skeffington, a friend of Crilly’s, and the host ask Cal to be their driver for a robbery. While the two of them plan it, Cal gets lost in his thoughts. Crilly notices this and asks him whether anything is wrong. Cal tells them he wants to get out of the IRA. His main reason is Marcella’s appearance in town. Cal seems to have been involved in the murder of a close relative of Marcella. Finally, Skeffington and Crilly persuade Cal to drive once more for them.
Later in the week, Cal waits for Marcella in front of the library and helps her with her groceries. While walking to the librarian’s car they have a chat and it becomes obvious that Cal feels very strongly for her.
When he comes home this night, Cal finds a threatening note from the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force; Protestant paramilitary organisation) warning Cal and Shamie to leave before something will happen. Cal wakes his father, who takes out a hidden gun and loads it. Afterwards both go to bed.
Cal is unable to sleep and thinks about Marcella and earlier threats. After the first one, Crilly had given the gun to Shamie. Since then, Cal had been driving for them several times.
At twenty-past three Cal realizes that his father cannot sleep either and they have a tea. Once more, they talk about Cal’s opportunity to work at the abattoir. Finally, while they are talking, Cal’s mother is mentioned for the first time.
Later on both return to their beds and try to sleep. However, Cal thinks about his mother Gracie: She had been a devout and loving woman who had already lost a son, Cal’s elder brother Brendan. When Cal was eight, she had collapsed in the kitchen because of a brain haemorrhage.
When Cal finally falls asleep, he has a recurring nightmare: He is standing in front of a house, holding a gun in his hands. A young girl is standing naked at a bay window. As Cal jumps into the room, the girl flees in great panic through the window. He observes her flying down and landing on the ground.
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Usually, Cal goes to church in his town, but this Sunday he has slept in and drives to Magherafelt. Sitting and looking around, Cal notices a little beautiful girl. He winks at her but after a short time the girl’s mother pulls her back into her seat.
During the church service, the priest speaks about a man named Matt Talbot, who - after years of drunkenness - lapped his waist in chains.
After service, when the crowd leaves the church, Cal finds out that the girl’s mother is Marcella. Although a friend is talking to Cal, he cannot stop watching Marcella, wondering about her being Catholic.
Later on, Cal meets Skeffington at a football game in Clones. Skeffington needs Cal for another “job”, but Cal wants to get out. Skeffington reacts in a disappointed and aggressive way; he tells him that in this case he will not be able to protect Cal anymore.
The following week, Shamie asks Cal to chop some dead trees, he has bought, and to sell the lumber.
The next day, Cal drives with a lorry, filled with wood to the Morton’s farm. Instead of Marcella, an elder woman opens the door. Finally, the woman agrees to buy the blocks of wood.
After work, Cal leaves the lorry at the abattoir. However, on his way home he runs into some Protestant people. They tell him and his father to leave but Cal refuses. The Protestants begin to beat Cal. Fortunately Cal can escape.
Some minutes later, when Cal is sitting on a chair, he begins to think about how it would be to hold Shamie’s gun and blow the head of one of the people apart.
The next day, Cal returns to the Mortons’ farm as to split the big blocks. While he is doing his work, Marcella and her daughter Lucy come out. Marcella recognizes Cal and they start talking. Nevertheless, when Lucy becomes impatient, Marcella has to leave.
After the work is done, Cal asks MRS Morton for his money. She asks him whether he wants to come the next day to lift the potatoes, too. Cal agrees.
The next morning, Cal drives with a group of young people to the farm. Doing his work Cal seems to be satisfied that he has something to do. After the potatoes are lifted, Mrs Morton offers Cal a steady job on her farm. Without thinking about this offer, Cal immediately accepts.
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On Friday Cal tells Shamie that he has been offered a job on the Mortons‘ farm to help the foreman Dunlop.
Shamie tells Cal that Crilly had asked for him and after a bath, Cal visits Crilly. Crilly wants him for another job. While he is robbing a shop, Cal should drive the car.
After having done their job, Cal and Crilly drive to Skeffington. Cal gets to know Skeffington‘s father. Skeffington is telling them how great his father is, although he does not say a word. After old Skeffington has gone to bed, the three men think about which family should get the money from the robbery. During their conversation, Skeffington asks whether Cal still wants to leave the organization and Cal answers the question in the affirmative. Skeffington reacts in a disgruntled way and threatens Cal (“If you‘re not part of the solution, you‘re part of the problem.”).
Cal has his first day at the Mortons‘ farm on Monday morning. Dunlop shows him round and explains everything to him. Cal likes his work on the farm despite the smell of cows and the dirt; he is happy to have a job. Dunlop says to him that he is lucky to have received that job. He tells him about a Catholic who once had worked on the farm. He had been dismissed because he had been too lazy. After the Mortons had found out that he had been a Catholic, Dunlop had thought that they would not let a Catholic work on their farm again.
The next Sunday, Cal drives once more to the church in Magherafelt, telling Shamie that he likes the preachers. However, this time Marcella is not there.
On Thursday, Cal goes to the library after work, hoping Marcella would be there.
While he is flipping through some magazines, he is observing her. As she approaches him while he is slotting the books into the shelves, they start a conversation. After they have been talking about Lucy, Marcella’s daughter, she tries to encourage him to read serious books rather than magazines. Afterwards, Cal watches Marcella working and he admires her movements. Finally, he decides to borrow a novel - probably to please Marcella.
On his way home, Cal has the feeling that something is wrong. Approaching his house, he notices the red, smoky sky and when he arrives there, the fire fighters are already putting the fire out. Cal has difficulties to find his father among the excited crowd. Then he sees him crying on a chair: He had not noticed that Cal had left for the library.
After everything had been done - interrogations by the police etc - the Mc Cluskeys go to Shamie’s Cousin Dermot Ryan living in Ardview. Still in a shocked state, Shamie tells the other two what he knows about the incident: He had been sleeping in the living room and had been woken by the smell of fire. As the front area of the house had been set on fire by a petrol bomb, Shamie had fled through the back door.
Since Shamie had left his gun on the bedside table, Cal returns to the estate. Although neither the stairs nor the floor is anymore safe, he gets up to the second floor. He sees that almost everything - including his guitar and his tape cassettes - have been destroyed by the fire. With the gun Cal returns to Dermot’s bungalow.
Before falling asleep, the two victims of anti-Catholic violence are having a chat. As the insurance had not been paid for years, they hope to get compensation by the Government.
Furthermore, Shamie tells his son that Crilly wants to see him on Saturday. Cal develops the plan to live at the cottage near the Mortons’ house: This would be the opportunity to get out of the IRA - no one and especially not Crilly knows about his new job. Cal tells Shamie that he goes away for a while but doesn´t tell him where to. For the first time, Shamie shows his worries about his son - but Cal does not yet want to talk openly to him.
The next morning, Cal is waiting for Cyril Dunlop as usual. Because of the recent events, he is even more afraid of probable assassinations and he knows that the gun would not rescue him, either.
The noises of the cows calm Cal while working. He has the possibility to reflect on the fire - and concludes that it might be the possibility to have a new start, clean and free of his past.
At lunchtime Cal breaks into the cottage and has a first look on his new “home”. Later on, he tells Dunlop that a friend will drive him back and forth from now on.
After Dunlop has left, Cal walks over to a pub where he spends his time until it is getting dark. Afterwards, he finally squats the cottage. Not having planned everything too good, he does not have a torch neither does he have anything to sleep on.
When Cal lies down, the memory of the day almost one year ago comes back.
On this day, Crilly had asked him to be his driver. Crilly had been planning to kill a member of the Police Reserve because he was supposed to have brought two innocent boys to prison. They had gone to the town hall to a dance. After they had been dancing and drinking for a while, they had left to get a car. They had been driving on to the main Magherafelt road and finally arrived at the farm. Cal had been waiting in the car whereas Crilly had gone to ring the bell of the farmhouse. A man had opened the door and Crilly had shot him twice in the chest. After a jam of Crilly’s gun - while the man had been calling for Marcella, his wife - Crilly had shot him into his head and killed him. After he had fired three more shots up the hallway, Crilly had run over to the car and they had left for the town hall. On their way back, they got rid of the gun and the car.
Cal had not been able to stay any longer than for a short dance and had gone home. He had had the feeling that he would be marked for the rest of his life.
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Cal continues to live in the cottage. One night he spies at Marcella while she is in the bathroom. More and more he getsthe feeling that a love affair between them is impossible.
Back at the cottage the door suddenly explodes open and Cal is arrested by the Army. They take him to the farmhouse whre Mrs. Morton and Marcella already expect him. Both are disappointed about Cal´s behaviour. After a long talk they decide that Cal can stay and live in the cottage.
The next day Cal and Marcella spend a lot of time together. She helps him to furnish the cottage and gives him some of Robert´s clothes to wear. During this day their friendship becomes much closer and their conversations more intense. Marcella tells him things about her life, Robert and about the time after his death while she was in Rome.
At night Cal is alone again. He remembers his mother and the way she had conducted her life. As soon as he falls asleep he has got a new nightmare: He is in a railway station in Rome. All the people around him have no eyes, like Roman statues. Then he sees Marcella. She looks at him with her dark brown eyes. A man is lying on the rails but this does not interest her. The train comes near and runs over the man. Cal screams but neither the crowd nor Marcella seem to mind.
The next evening Marcella comes to Cal to give him his clothes and some books. She is very open towards him, complaining about her dreary life. For example, her father-in-law always cougs as he had been injured that particular day, one year ago. Marcella starts crying and Cal tries to calm her. The two of them agree that Marcella will from now on take him with her to church every Sunday.
The next Sunday Cal is afraid to be seen accompanied by Marcela at the church by a friend of Crilly’s. On the way back to the farm, Marcella tells Cal about her favourite crucifixion, an altarpiece she admires the most, since she had seen it on a school trip. It had heavily impressed her because the painter, Grünewald, had shown the great pain of Jesus.
One Thursday Cal asks Dunlop, who is not happy about the way Cal managed to continue living in the cottage, to give him a lift into town. While talking, Cal finds out that, all in all, Dunlop is of the opinion that violence should be used to end violence.
At Dermot’s, Cal is shocked about his father‘s physical and psychological condition. Shamie tells his son that he is sad about the loss of his house. Although he is apparently mentally ill, Shamie continues to work. He has not even seen a doctor. Cal can convince him to go there.
Shamie tells Cal that Crilly as well as Skeffington have been asking for him. He is worrying for his son because he does not know anything about him.
After having taken a bath at Dermot’s, Cal goes to the library; therefore Marcella takes him back to the farm. Cal persuades Marcella to take a drink in one of the pubs. They are talking about their past. Marcella tells Cal the story of Rapunzel and how she understands it: The letting-down of Rapunzel’s hair symbolizes for her the appeal to do something unusual.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Cal is repairing the windows of the cottage, when Marcella and Lucy come over to pick blackberries. They are talking about the situation in Ireland. Later, Cal asks Marcella whether she has ever done something really bad. She answers that once she had stood a boy up and that she does not like the way she was sometimes treating Lucy. As Marcella asks him the same question - the opportunity to confess everything - he tells her about a boy he and Crilly had beaten up at school.
Just when they are on their way back to the farm, they hear an explosion. Cal runs over to the scene of crime, leaving Marcella and her daughter behind. He discovers that it has been a cow that had exploded because of a landmine.
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A few days later Cal visits his father to see whether he has recovered. Cal discovers that Shamie is still mentally ill and therefore has stopped work. On his way home he has to cheek into a garden because Crilly‘s mother comes along.
As usuall Marcella gives Cal a lift to church and one day, on their way back, she tells him that her parents-in-law go to Belfast for a week because Mr. Morton has to have another operation.
During this week, Dunlop stops working earlier as he used to and so Cal does. After Dunlop has left Cal walks upstairs to Marcella‘s room. He snoops around in her room, looks for her dresses, her underwear, smells her perfume, and also finds her diary and reads in it.
In the evening Marcella returns home from work. She invites Cal to an Italian dinner and Cal agrees.
Before Cal goes to the dinner in his best clothes he buys a bottle of wine and whiskey in a pub. During the dinner they talk and drink a lot. Finally Cal is drunk.
For coffee they go to another room. As usuall, Marcella is talking about Robert and her life while she moves closer and closer to Cal. Suddenly he kisses Marcella but she refuses and tells to him how childish it was and that she wants him as a friend and not as a lover.
On Wednesday it starts to snow. In the evening, Marcella knocks on Cal‘s door and wants to apologize. Cal and Marcella drink tea with whiskey and talk. After some, time Cal kisses her again and this time she does not reject him. Cal confesses that he loves her. Their kisses become stronger and more emotional and finally they make love. Cal seems to be embarrassed because it´s the first time for him but Marcella softens him.
Later they return to the house and Cal worries about her getting pregnant but she says that she has used a diaphragm.
In the farmhouse Cal and Marcella continue drinking and they make love.
Afterwards Marcella tells him that she and Robert had not have sex for a long time before his murder. At this time she had not had the feeling that he had been mentally with her while making love. Although Robert had told her lies about almost everything, his mother had continued to support him.
Cal returns to the cottage for sleeping, because Lucy should not see him in the morning.
The next day Cal does his Christmas shopping. He buys a book on Grünewald and a perfume, for Shamie the usual after-shave and a shave-stick, furthermore a jigsaw. In addition, Lucy will get a Raggedy Army Ann doll.
After his shopping Cal goes over to Dermot. He gets to know, that his father had been admitted to hospital. This is the reason why Cal will not be able to see him.
At the library Cal realizes that Marcella has taken a day off. Nevertheless, Crilly is there and he tells him about the IRA’s plan to burn the library down. Cal is even more horrified when he hears the only reason: The library is state property.
Crilly forces Cal to come to his house. He tells him that in the meanwhile old Skeffington had been injured severely. On his son’s order Crilly had knee-capped the assassinator with a captive bolt.
Then Skeffington himself arrives. He wants to persuade Cal to stick with them - otherwise he might be killed.
At that moment the police enter Crilly’s house. Cal is able to escape but the other two IRA-members are arrested. He tells the police anonymously that a bomb had been planted in the local library.
Back at the farm, Cal gives the Christmas presents to Marcella and Lucy. After the girl has gone to bed, her mother and Cal make love. The boy thinks about telling Marcella the truth but he is still too afraid.
Cal returns to the cottage. After Skeffington and Crilly have been arrested, he had already expected the police and at night they come to imprison him.
Katrin & Katharina
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