Inspired by a custody case brought before the Irish courts in 1955, Evelyn stars Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye) as Desmond Doyle, a father fighting for the custody of his three children after abandonment by their mother. Due to the Irish law of the time, children could not be raised by one parent in what the courts considered "a broken home", thus allowing the Doule children to be placed in church-run orphanages, where neglect and cruelty were not out of the ordinary.