During the 1990s, outside the village of Connemara in County Galway, Ireland, resides the elderly Padric and Schirley Kilhara. Padric is receiving his last rites as the play opens. The lightning bolt that illuminates the large standing stone outside his thatched-roofed cottage is perhaps the finger of God summoning Padric back to life in order to complete the work that must be done before Padric's soul will be freed to meet its maker. Padric, a carver of stones, is overcome by the vision to bring forth "the mists of legend" and his Irish heritage from the imposing stone sentinel.