John Andrew and Ciaran Corrigan live in Dublin, Ireland, with their mother. John, known to everyone as Corrigan, starts drinking and spending time with street people. When Ciaran is 19 and Corrigan 17, their mother dies. Later, Corrigan begins studying for the priesthood, eventually joins an order of monks, and goes to New York on a missionary assignment. 

Ciaran joins his brother in America after Dublin is besieged with IRA bombings. Corrigan’s spiritual mission involves helping the local prostitutes and the elderly in a nursing home. At the home, he meets and falls in love with Adelita, who is a nurse there.

The police arrest the hookers who are Corrigan’s friends and neighbors. Corrigan goes to court to help get them out of jail. It turns out that Tillie and Jazzlyn, mother and daughter prostitutes, are wanted for robbing a client. Tillie takes the rap to keep her daughter free. 

On the way home, the van with Corrigan and Jazzlyn inside is hit by a car and then a truck. Jazzlyn is thrown through the windshield and dies instantly. Corrigan’s chest is crushed, but he lives until he gets to the hospital and Ciaran and Adelita come to his bedside. He dies whispering to Adelita that “he saw something beautiful” (72).