Frank Bridge turned his back on his family's gangland conflicts in Northumberland decades ago. He fell in love, went to university, and is now writing a book on the Spanish poet Lorca. When his father, the violent patriarch, dies, he decides to face the past and returns to Spain to carry out his research, and perhaps reconcile with his erstwhile brother Gordon, who lives on absconded gang money in a villa on the Costas. However, whilst Frank has been changed by twenty five years apart, Gordon still holds on to the rage and terror of a life of crime. From the doomed coalfields of northeast England to the beaches of Spain, the two brothers fight with each other, and themselves, to overcome their family's legacy.