Summary

The story opens two weeks after the death of Bernadette Doyle, an Irish Catholic mother of three boys. On this day Bernadette’s sisters appear at her home asking for a family heirloom, a statue of the Virgin Mary. The sisters Sullivan lay claim to the statue because Bernadette technically has no heirs for it, as family tradition dictates that it be passed down to a girl who resembles the statue. Bernadette’s husband, Doyle, refuses to give the statue to the sisters because his two youngest sons believe it’s an actual statue of their mother and because they pray to it nightly. Doyle then recalls the two stories of the statue’s origins, one false and one true. The false story is that its Italian creator designed it from a description Bernadette’s grandfather had told him. The truth is that...