An uneasy combination of social comedy and melodrama concerning the adventures and misadventures of Christopher Newman, an essentially good-hearted but rather gauche American businessman on his first tour of Europe.
The hapless king of a small European nation must put up with a domineering queen, a daughter who wants to elope with her boyfriend, a peasant revolt and a scheming son who wants to be king himself and is plotting to take advantage of the situation.
Parents struggle over the future of their child, resulting in the mother, using her cunning manipulative skills, subduing and finally destroying the father.
The first part of Sean O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy. Set in 1920, as the Irish War of Independence rages, "Shadow of a Gunman" is the story of two young men, Donald Davoren and Seamus Shields, who share a flat in Dublin.