Beginning with a violent and mysterious murder, Shade tells the story of two pairs of siblings growing up in Ireland in the first half of the century and how their lives interweave. Through a childhood that memory will give the luster of romance and the tragedy that comes as the children's innocence ends and the two boys leave for the Great War, these unforgettable characters reach mid-century inexorably moving towards playing roles in the brutal murder that begins the novel—a murder that may ultimately be revealed as the opposite of the senseless crime it seems.