The younger generation responds to changing times in various ways. Yolland (Erik Rhea) is the British soldier in charge of the survey, enamoured of the Ireland he is helping to transform. Owen (Stephen Godwin) is the Irishman with a foot in both worlds who unwittingly speeds the destruction of his home. Manus (James Gibbon) is trapped between the worlds, but Maire (played by Eden Nelson), a young and independent woman, is a pivotal character. She is torn between the well-loved landscape but crippling isolation of Baile Beag, and the beckoning vistas of Brooklyn and Boston. She is the character who is able to act decisively for her future.

Along with young Sarah (Emily Blanche), Lancey (Kato Buss), Doalty (Calder Johnson) and Bridget (Sharah Truett), they are caught between the identity of the traditional and mythic past, the privations of the present, and the newly uncertain future. Together they are introduced to the modern world---and modern brutality.