Michael and Julia Glynn seem like the model couple. Wealthy and devout, they're the envy of their neighbours and bear Michael's crippling arthritis with stoicism. Hoping for a miracle, their priest suggests a family pilgrimage to Lourdes.As these pious plans develop, Julia continues her affair with Michael's nephew - until she begins receiving anonymous letters that describe their trysts in obscene detail. Shaken by anxiety and frustrated desire, Julia starts to spin out of control, risking catastrophe in their small, curtain-twitching town.Frank in its depiction of sexuality and queerness in 1950s Ireland, The Pilgrimage was immediately banned on original publication. Scandalous and bleakly funny, it is a powerful evocation of the corrosive effects of repression.