In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.

James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.

A desperate drug addict breaks into a locker and steals a bag for his next fix, a small crime that lands him behind bars. In prison, he’s a loner, baited by guards who want to see him snap and lose his shot at parole.

A story of two children who react with naive simple emotion to a situation imposed upon them by their father's secret.

Based on personal memories and experiences of childhood, set in and around a Glasgow housing scheme. A triptych of moments of reflection and loss in one girl's childhood and adolescence.

Another day unfolds in a woman's life, as she cooks and cleans for her uncommunicative husband and sullen grown-up children. Late in the afternoon, she has an unusual visitor.