Cast out from home, sixteen and pregnant, Catherine Goggin boards the bus to Dublin to start afresh. Once there, she has no choice but to believe that the nun to whom she entrusts her child will find him a better life.
 
The baby is named Cyril by his adoptive parents, who treat him more like a curiosity than a son. But before this can affect him too deeply, he meets Julian Woodbead who, even from childhood, seems destined for an infinitely more glamorous and dangerous life.
 
And so begins one man's funny and moving search to find his place in a world that seems to delight in gently tormenting him at every turn. Buffeted by circumstance and the consequences of his own questionable judgement, Cyril must navigate his emotions and his desires in search of that most instinctive human need... happiness.