Dublin, 1841. On a cold December morning, a small boy is enticed away from his mother and his throat savagely cut. It appears that the culprit --- a feckless student named John Delahunt --- is also an informant in the pay of the authorities at Dublin Castle. And strangely, this young man seems neither to regret what he did nor fear his punishment. Indeed, as he awaits the hangman in his cell in Kilmainham Gaol, John Delahunt decides to tell his story in this, his final, deeply unsettling statement.