1976年8月，利物浦。5岁的Fergus在上学的第一天认识了Frankie。他们之后形影不离。少年时代，他们一起跷课去Mersey河的渡轮上喝苹果酒，梦想着周游世界。但Fergus没想到他的梦想因为他加入英国特种精英部队（SAS）而得以实现。
在2004年9月辞职之后，Fergus说服了Frankie（他之前当过伞兵）在巴格达组建了安保小组，月薪是1万英镑，而且不用缴税。由于在战争中私有化日益加剧，他们决定干最后一票。他们一起将在一个暴力、恐怖和贪婪统治的城市堵上自己的性命。这个城市涌入了亿万美元。2007年9 月，Frankie在世界上最危险的路"Route Irish"上身亡。被悲伤笼罩的Fergus于是回到了利物浦。他拒绝官方的Frankie死因解释，自己着手进行关于好友死亡的调查。只有 Frankie的伴侣Rachel了解他有多痛苦和多拼命地寻找线索。当Fergus试着揭开Frankie在"Route Irish"上死亡的真相时，他和Rachel渐渐走到一起。随着越来越接近真相，Fergus努力重新找回自己，并重新获得在20年之前，在 Mersey河上，和Frankie一起度过的欢乐时光。
Liverpool, August 1976. 5-year-old Fergus met Frankie on his first day at school. They’ve been in each others’ shadow ever since. As teenagers they skipped school and drank cider on the ferry over the River Mersey, dreaming about travelling the world. Little did Fergus realise his dream would come true as a highly trained member of the
UK’s elite special forces, the SAS.
After resigning in September 2004, Fergus persuaded Frankie (by now an ex-Para)to join his security team in Baghdad. £10,000 a month, tax free. Their last chance to "load up" in this increasingly privatised war. Together they risked their lives in a city steeped in violence, terror and greed, and awash with billions of US dollars. In September 2007, Frankie died on Route Irish, the most dangerous road in the world.
Back in Liverpool, a grief-stricken Fergus rejects the official explanation, and begins his own investigation into his soul mate’s death. Only Rachel, Frankie’s partner, grasps the depth of Fergus’s sorrow, and the lethal
possibilities of his fury. As Fergus tries to find out what happened to Frankie on Route Irish, he and Rachel grow closer. As he approaches the truth behind Frankie’s death,
Fergus struggles to find his old self and the happiness he shared with Frankie twenty years earlier on the Mersey.