When high-brow author PC Molloy is forced to write for April Devereaux's gossip magazine Poison Pen, he is not only caught up in a world of stars and their secrets he is also in danger of becoming a celebrity himself. Soon the spotlight is turning on Molloy and he struggles to keep his own secrets off the front page. But when he finds himself falling for his boss will he be able to find the right words?

Jimmy Rabbitte, just a tick out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.