When Kieran O'Mahony rides away to the hunt on a powerful black horse, his mother is gripped by a sense of foreboding. He is a rising hurling star, with the world at his feet and one spirited local girl in his heart. His grandmother, however, has read a frightening premonition in the tea leaves.

Already several things out of the ordinary have occurred that summer. First, there is the arrival of Tamara, a young London cousin - minus her voice, which she lost following a traumatic event. Then, in the same week of July 1969, the family are caught up in the magic of the Apollo moon landing.

It's a giant step for mankind indeed but doesn't help Tamara to adjust to the already alien world of the Cork farm. Mute, she must cope with the unfamiliar idiom and way of seeing the world, while her cousin Sally resents the attention paid to her.

Then all their lives are shattered by a blind act of fate that threatens to tear the family asunder.

Like the Apollo astronauts, Kieran and his family begin a voyage away from the familiar. Their journey back from the dark side of the moon involves one exceptional moon-silver horse, the bonds of family, the wisdom of age and the passionate loyalty of youth.