Provisionally titled Paula, it begins with a brief encounter that ends in violence, as a man and a woman get locked into a battle driven by vengeance.
While the BBC has billed this as McPherson's first original television series, it isn't his first screenplay for the station. In 2013, he wrote the last episode of the adaptation of Benjamin Black's Quirke.
McPherson says: "I'm delighted to be working with the BBC on this exciting three-part story, and really looking forward to bringing it to audiences very soon."
The production will be made by BBC Northern Ireland with Cuba Pictures for BBC Two.
Set up in 2008, Cuba Pictures' very impressive track record includes Boy A, Broken (Tim Roth, Rory Kinnear, Cillian Murphy, Eloise Lawrence) and London Road (Olivia Colman, Tom Hardy), as well as Coalition for Channel 4 and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for BBC One.
