Before an American company can build a smelting plant outside a small Irish village, they have to send their top troubleshooter to find a way around an antiquated law that protects the leprechauns supposedly living on the property.

In this true story, Veronica Guerin is an investigative reporter for an Irish newspaper. As the drug trade begins to bleed into the mainstream, Guerin decides to take on and expose those responsible. Beginning at the bottom with addicts, Guerin then gets in touch with John Traynor, a paranoid informant. Not without some prodding, Traynor leads her to John Gilligan, the ruthless head of the operation, who does not take kindly to Guerin’s nosing.