Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary

Frankie goes up to Joe's office in what used to be his den to ask for more time on the rent. Frankie is forced to wait while Joe finishes writing a letter. At home, the fire trucks come and take the baby from Mary. Mrs. Jackson, their neighbor, offers to take the children while Mary goes to the hospital with Dolores. Mary is in shock and cannot move. Another neighbor, Eva Amil, takes Luca and offers her to Mary. Then Mrs. Amil gently urges Mary into the ambulance.

While Frankie waits to get Joe's attention, he remembers back to when he first met Joe. Frankie is a young man, barely twenty, when he gets a job on a ship that takes him to Cardiff. Once there, he rents a room from a man who is also from his home of Malta...