Terry, Chris and Larry are three Irish friends in the London of the 1960's with little in common except their liking for 'dishonest work'. Chris is a pickpocket in the West End; the time of the first race determines what time Larry gets out of bed; Terry's aversion to manual labour is so strong that he says 'I'd rather starve than work on the fucking buildings'. Then there is Bannaher, the big man, the 'subby', who is publicising his new pub venture by having a friend of theirs temporarily buried alive in the pub's back garden. 'A charity lie-in', he calls it. Into this mix comes Tessa, blonde, English and 'out to screw the world before it screws me'. Before she is finished all their lives have changed irrevocably. It's a tale of greed and deception that trawls the pubs and building sites of Kilburn and Cricklewood, and the mean street of Limerick.