Gritty drama based on the events of the 1981 hunger strikes by republican prisoners at the Maze Prison in Northern Irel&. As a protest against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's refusal to allow jailed republican prisoners special political status, over 400 of their number begin a 'dirty' protest, refusing to wash or wear regulation prison clothes, resulting in them being locked in their cells for days on end in response. After four years of the protest, & with no sign of a change of heart by the authorities, Seamus Scullion (Brendan Mackey) finds himself chosen to select those of his fellow inmates who will take the protest to its ultimate conclusion.