Lieutenant James Keegan is a highly decorated police officer assigned to the NYPD's Joint Terrorist Task Force. Keegan has solved many high profile cases during his eighteen years with the NYPD, including an imminent terrorist attack which earned him a personal thank you from the President of the United States. All is not what it appears, however, with Lieutenant Keegan. James Keegan has a double life in which he has been involved with the Irish Republican Army for almost as long as he has the NYPD.Set in 1995, Exceptional Merit will take you from the quiet back streets of Northern Ireland to the gritty streets of New York City; from an I.R.A. training camp, to the most inner workings of the NYPD. Keegan's two lives come crashing together on New York's largest stage in front of a live televised audience, where Keegan must decide where his loyalty lies; to a job that he loves and the people of the city of New York he has taken an oath to serve and protect, or to the cause of freedom for Northern Ireland which he has believed in his entire life. All of the while, Keegan is unaware his every move is being watched from within his own department.