Long before Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly became a fixture in the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, he was a young M.B. with plans to marry his sweetheart, Deirdre Mawhinney, and settle down. But those dreams are complicated by World War II and the call of duty. Assigned to the HMS Warspite, a formidable thirty-thousand-ton battleship, Surgeon Lieutenant O'Reilly soon finds himself face-to-face with the horrors of war, tending to the dreadnought's crew of twelve hundred as well as the many casualties brought aboard. Also a struggle: remaining true to his beloved Deirdre despite temptations abroad ... Over two decades later, life in Ballybucklebo is a far cry from the strife of war, but O'Reilly and his younger colleagues still have plenty of challenges on their hands, from an outbreak of German measles, the odd tropical disease, a hard-fought pie-baking contest, and a local father whose mule headed adherence to tradition is standing in the way of his son's future. Now older and wiser, O'Reilly has prescriptions for whatever ails ... until a secret from the past threatens to unravel his own peace of mind.