Summary

In Part 1, Chapter 1, Eilis Fiorello’s mother-in-law Francesca informs Eilis that a local Irishman stopped by to see her. Eilis lives in a cul-de-sac of the Lindenhurst neighborhood on Long Island with her husband Tony Fiorello’s family. The man stopped by each of their houses. Eilis laughs off the issue and spends the rest of the afternoon waiting for her children Larry and Rosella to return home. Then the bell rings. A man with an Irish accent is at the door. He informs Eilis that Tony got his wife pregnant while doing a plumbing job at his house. The man insists that when the baby is born in August he will drop it on Eilis’s doorstep. Eilis recognizes the man’s stubbornness because Eilis is also Irish.

After the man leaves, Eilis moves around the house in a daze. She wishes she...