In 1972, eight-year old Frankie McGuire witnesses his father being gunned down in front of him due to being an Irish republican sympathizer. By 1992, an adult Frankie and three other Provisional Irish Republican Army men are caught up in a firefight in Belfast when members of the British Army try to capture him. One gunman is killed and another, Desmond, is wounded as Frankie and the last gunman, Sean Phelan, flee. Hiding out in the countryside, Frankie and his friend Martin MacDuff see a British Army helicopter circling overhead and decide they need Stinger missiles.