Steven Lindsay, a university lecturer, is suddenly released from a Soviet labour camp after serving only part of a sentence for what he believes were false charges. With a burning sense of injustice, he returns home to find his family life has changed beyond all recognition. His home is no longer in Glasgow but Fife, his wife is working and his sons are now teenagers with their own ideas of how to live their life. But who are the two men who have influence over his family? How have Duncan Mackenzie, pipe major and the village joiner; and Paul Holland, the vaguely familiar Czech refugee, become so important to his family and why? As a sense of normality returns, Steven discovers the reason for his imprisonment. His realisation eventually comes to a dramatic conclusion on the day of the annual Cowal Highland Games at Dunoon.