Summary

This brief scene surrounds events that took place in the early 1900's on an island called Inishmaan located west of Ireland. A young woman returns to the cottage where her sister has just finished preparing a cake and putting it in the pot-oven by the fire. Cathleen has just sat down at the spinning wheel when her younger sister Nora enters and asks where their mother is. Cathleen tells her their mother is lying down, and hopefully sleeping. Nora takes a parcel out from under her shawl. The young priest had gotten them from a man who drowned near Donegal and sent them along to see if they belonged to their brother Michael.

Cathleen wonders If the young priest will prevent their sole surviving brother Bartley from taking the horses to Galway fair, but Nora tells her...