The following version of the book was used to create this guide: Urrea, Luis Alberto. Good Night, Irene. Little, Brown and Company.

Luis Alberto Urrea’s novel Good Night, Irene, follows the lives of Irene Woodward and Dorothy Dunford while they volunteer with the Red Cross Clubmobile Service during the Second World War. The novel is written from a third-person omniscient point of view, primarily granting the reader access to Irene and Dorothy’s internal thoughts and emotions.

At the outset of the narrative, Dorothy and Irene both traveled to Washington DC to report for training. During the Clubmobiler orientation, they were taught how to make donuts, apply makeup, and properly don a gas mask. Dorothy was disgruntled with the Red Cross’s promotion of gender stereotypes. She wanted to play an active part in the war but as a woman, she was not allowed to enlist in the military. After Dorothy and Irene were assigned to run the Clubmobile, the Rapid City, they were deployed overseas. On the Monarch, on the way to Liverpool, another ship in the convoy was torpedoed and burst into flames. Irene was haunted by images of the dying men. After they arrived in Europe, Dorothy, Irene, and Ellie set up their first Donut Dugout. They were exhausted by the amount of energy required to flirt with and soothe every GI who approached their counter. Shortly after, they were sent to London. On the way, their train was bombed by the Luftwaffe. Ellie left a note the next morning saying she could not tolerate being in the war and was heading back to America. In London, Irene was delighted to see the pilot Handyman who she met during training. When the Rapid City crew was reassigned, they worked on an air base on the coast.

Following the successful invasion on D-Day, they were sent to Normandy. After crossing Utah Beach, Irene and Dorothy entered an active combat zone for the first time. The conditions were depraved but they continued to perform affability for the troops. The Sisters recognized that there were many unspoken facets to their assignment. As they moved further into France, they became the soldiers’ confidants. At night, the men confessed the horrific things they have seen and done, and the women listened without judgment. Later, in a small French village, their convoy was ambushed, and the town besieged by the German army. Dorothy and Irene fled the melee when they heard the munitions erupt. They hid in an abandoned house for days. However, when a tank smashed into the exterior wall, the house crumbled, and they were trapped beneath piles of rubble. Later, a water main was bombed, and the foundation began to flood. They scrambled over broken furniture and debris to escape the water. When they emerged, the entire town was razed. Shortly after, they befriended Garcia and the survivors moved further toward the Siegfried Line. Dorothy and Irene were relieved when they learned that Headquarters assigned them to R and R in Cannes. On the French riviera, they basked on the beach and reunited with Handyman and Smitty. Irene and the pilot began their sexual affair and fell in love.

When the Rapid City crew was sent back to the front lines, they traveled with Patton’s army. In Germany, the general asked them to accompany his troops to a concentration camp, for moral support. Dorothy continued to feel that she was not doing enough to help the war effort. She felt helpless and began working with the Gray Ghosts eliminating German targets. However, after she killed a German officer, she did not feel a sense of retribution. Later, when she was on a different mission with the Gray Ghosts, she found a baby on a train of dead prisoners. Dorothy decided to save the child as payback for the destruction and horror she had witnessed. She insisted that Irene drive her toward Füssen where she would pretend to be a refugee. On the way there, the truck flipped and burst into flames as it tumbled over a cliff. Both Irene and Dorothy believed their friend died in the crash. Irene spent the next month recuperating in a field hospital in France. When she was finally sent back to America, after the war, she felt isolated and incapable of communicating her experiences. Meanwhile, Dorothy started a life in Europe raising the baby, who she named Andrea. Decades after the war, the friends reunited when Dorothy visited Long Island with her daughter and granddaughter.