Brendan Behan, as a sixteen year old Irish republican, sets off on a bombing mission from Ireland to Liverpool during the Second World War. His mission is thwarted when he is apprehended, charged and imprisoned in Borstal, a reform institution for young offenders in East Anglia in England. Forced to live face to face with those he perceived as the enemy, a confrontation reveals a deep inner conflict in the young Brendan and forces a self-examination that is both traumatic and revealing.