Nancy Tyrrell is seventeen, an aspiring writer secretly drawing strength from Joyce's "Ulysses" while her spirit is trapped in a going-nowhere village in County Cork in 1954 - perhaps an unlikely place and time for an heroic act of defiance. Though it's unthinkable in that era, Nancy is critical of her religion's dogma, viewing the Roman Catholic Church as a threat, a power structure that robs the faithful of their freedom of thought, even of their persona. When she witnesses a hideous crime, she's traumatized by it, nevertheless becoming determined to bring the criminal to justice against the advice of family and friends and the all-knowing, condescending might of the Church. The book is populated with vivid characters, good and evil, though none is possessed of the clarity of thought and perception that directs Nancy's single-minded pursuit of "rightness" in the face of institutionalized hypocrisy. When her spirits flag, she's buoyed by the village eccentric while they fly kites, exploring symbolism, down-to-earth philosophy and their emerging selves. In this tale of authentic voices, setting and time, Nancy Tyrrell "becomes" Ulysses, the arch-hero in search of herself and her place in the world.