Amid a haze of cigarette smoke and uneaten food, the family of Enda Doyle gathers in Dublin for his wake. A university librarian, poet, and complicated man, he has left behind a trail of unresolved issues, a dysfunctional family, and a disturbing mystery. Enda’s dazed widow, Moya, anxiously prepares for the next day’s funeral with her still stuck-at-home, twenty-something daughter Medbh, lending a loving hand. Moya’s desperation to keep her family together and Medbh’s sharp tongue provide the backdrop for the arrival from New York of headstrong older sister Catherine, with her handsome but awkward boyfriend Tom in tow. They doubt that London-based Johnny, the angry black sheep brother of the family, will appear at all. Sorting through boxes of Enda’s books, the women discover a cache of self-recorded video diaries that might shed light on who Enda Doyle really was. At the funeral, the daughters see a distraught young woman from the university, Helen, rumored to be having an affair with Enda. They’re stunned that she would show up so brazenly at a family gathering for the deceased Enda. Returning home, they find Johnny emerging half-naked from the shower, after a quick tryst with a stewardess he met on his flight from London. A brilliant, wounded slacker, Johnny manages to irritate everyone with his biting and sarcastic recall of the family’s long buried memories. Johnny’s confrontational behavior and bitter assessment of life with father incite the clan into what can only be called unchecked family therapy. Throughout the ensuing arguments, which reach a fevered pitch as the family gets inebriated waiting for guests to arrive for the wake, much is learned about the powerful and ambiguous force that was Enda Doyle.