Poignant family drama set in 1950s Ireland and based on a true story. Pierce Brosnan stars as Desmond Doyle, a painter/decorator whose wife walks out on the marriage and their three children, leaving him to bring them up himself and earn money to support the family. But his erratic employment leads to the children being put into the care of separate Catholic orphanages until he can prove he is able to support them financially. When he discovers that his young daughter, Evelyn (Sophie Vavasseur) is being ill-treated by the nuns at her orphanage, he is furious, and determines to do whatever he can to win back custody of his children. With the help of lawyers Michael Beattie (Stephen Rea), Nick Barron (Aidan Quinn) and Thomas Connolly (Alan Bates), he takes his battle for custody to the Irish court.