In 1894 on Achill Island in the west of Ireland, an English landowner, Agnes Mac Donnell, was brutally attacked and her home -  The Valley House - burnt. Agnes survived but was so disfigured she wore a veil in public for the rest of her life. The island's wild man, James Lynchehaun, was convicted of the crime and sentanced to life imprisonment. However, he escaped twice and won a groundbreaking legal case in the United States when he successfully resisted extradition.

A Franciscan monk in Achill, Brother Paul Carney, who had befriended and assisted Lynchehaun, wrote up the fugitive's story, and Lynchehaun became a folk hero. John Millington Synge visited Mayo in 1904/1905 and decided to locate his drama, 'Playboy of the Western World', in North Mayo. Lynchehaun was one of Synge's inspirations for the character of Christy Mahon.

The crime, the trial and escapes, and the island tensions are unravelled in this gripping account.