Broken Harvest is set in 1950's Ireland framed by modern-day New York. It deals with a bitter feud between two farmers who had taken opposite sides in the Irish Civil War many years before and who had also fought for the love of the same woman. When the feud is reawakened in the '50s it causes a major upheaval with tragic consequences for the lives of the two men, their families and the community. As the story unfolds it embraces many of the great, lingering issues affecting Ireland in this century - the War of Independence, the Civil War, emigration, the links with America, the clash between traditional, conservative values and those of a new technological age.

A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. He and his four friends are coerced by British police into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends fifteen years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence.