The northern irish reporter Starkey and the american journalist Parker are supposed to cover the upcoming elections in Northern Ireland. The favourite of the Masses, Michael Brinn, promises to disarm and bring to peace the different paramilitary organisations. Starkey begins an affair with young Margaret who hand him a tape with classical music that Starkey soon sells to a street vendor. He later finds her dying, her last words being "Divorcing Jack". The next day Starkey finds out Margaret was the daughter of a political colleague of Brinn, also his wife is being abducted. At night he is shot at by rebels but is being rescued by Lee Cooper, a nurse by day and stripper by night, who takes him to her apartement. There he hears familiar music of czech componist Antonin Dvořák, realizing this name were Margarets last words. He now feaverishly searches for the tape but is being abducted together with Parker by Keegan, a rebel leader, who shoots Parker and makes Starkey bring him the tape. He finds it at a priests home. Hearing the tape he hears Brinns confession that Brinn, who was wounded in the civil war, himself planted the bombs that later harmed him. At a stand-off later Keegan exchanges the tape for a ransom by Brinn. Driving away separately both cars blow up - they handed each other bombs. Starkey decides to publish this story.