Tara

In 1970’s New York, twenty-six-year-old, attorney, TARA CARTER is startled to learn that, as an infant, she was adopted from the Magdalene Laundry in Ireland—an institution run by the Catholic Church to house women who became pregnant out of wedlock. Upset that her wealthy adoptive parents concealed this information, she travels to Ireland in search of her birth parents.

There, she learns her mother has died. The woman who raised her mother suspects she committed suicide after being abandoned by Tara’s father, MÁIRTÍN TOBIN, a Catholic seminarian. Máirtín has since left the seminary for a teaching career. Rumors abound that he may have joined the African Missions.

She meets MORNA, who was in love with Máirtín until he hurt her best friend, Tara’s mother.

When attempts to find her father fail, Tara returns to her law firm, and prepares to assist her boss in defending Father Patrick Gannon, a Catholic priest arrested for murdering a prominent psychiatrist. Tara must assist in defending this priest in order to protect her job with the law firm.

CONOR KILROY, the brash prosecuting attorney, who is attracted to Tara, needs this victory to boost his income.

In the midst of preparing for the trial, Tara continues to search for her father, sending letters of inquiry to American and Irish schools as well as to the African Missions. The return answers are negative, and when the trial is resolved, she plans to hire a private detective.

One evening when Tara is working on the case in her apartment, an agitated Morna comes to see her with a copy of the New York Times bearing a photo of Father Patrick.

Tara is shocked to learn from Morna that this priest is none other than Máirtín Tobin who has changed his name. Father Patrick is charged with manslaughter, impersonating a priest, and impregnating his seventeen-year-old housekeeper. These charges result in a sentence of ten years.

Tara accepts Conor’s proposal of marriage.