This novel centers on people brought together by an evening class in Italian at Dublin's bleak and shabby Mountainview School. The outward condition of the school serves as a metaphor for the inner lives of the characters. All are in some way weather-beaten and in need of refurbishment.

Like Maeve Binchy's other novels, Evening Class is set in Ireland. Unlike her other novels, the time setting is the 1990s, and there is a relaxation of Catholicism's hold. Binchy's young female characters speak openly about birth control and family planning, and divorce is now an option. These changes in the laws of the Irish Republic affect several characters, while evolutions in social values influence others.

The first eight sections of the novel focus on the individual stories of the major characters. Section one centers on Aidan Dunne, the stodgy, forty-eightyear- old Latin teacher at Mountainview who finds...