The Pull of the Stars

In the present day at a Dublin nursing home, an elderly man with dementia named Tadhg struggles to hold onto his memories.

As he drifts in and out of lucidity, flashbacks reveal his life decades earlier: falling in love with his wife Kathleen during World War I, their marriage, and the devastating impact of the 1918 influenza epidemic on Dublin — a period when real-life doctor Kathleen Lynn was fighting to treat patients while also campaigning for women's suffrage.

The novel weaves these two timelines together, showing how Tadhg's present fragility is shaped by the love he once held.