Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her, the story advances the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare's plays.

Brilliant, flamboyant master criminal Michael Lynch is more interested in his image and his posterity than the actual profit from his ill-gotten gains.

Michael Lynch is Dublin's most notorious criminal, his brazen robberies making him the bane of the Gardaí and a hero to his fellow working class city Northsiders. When not playing happy families with his two wives - sisters Christine and Lisa - and his children, Lynch is busy plotting elaborate heists, thinking as much about the showmanship of it all as he is the loot involved. On his case is Garda Noel Quigley, his determination to convict Lynch slowly turning into an obsession. Inevitably, a showdown looms.