Summary

Eilis has arrived in Brooklyn at the end of the summer, the hottest time of the year in New York. Eilis’s room in Mrs. Kehoe’s building is cozy but very hot. Mrs. Kehoe only boards girls, and does not encourage talk of boys. She does, however, encourage talk of feminine things, such as women’s fashion. Eilis gets along well enough with all the other girls, including the prim Miss McAdam from Belfast, man-crazy Patty McGuire from upstate New York, half-Irish half-Italian American Diana Montini, the quiet but politically-minded Miss Keegan from Galway, and Sheila Heffernan who works as a secretary. As the youngest girl in the house, Eilis is sometimes annoyed to be criticized and commented upon so much. Still, she finds the house and Father Flood’s parish to be warm and inviting.

Eilis gets along well at work...