Summary

In South Boston, during the summer of 1974, a woman named Mary Pat Fennessy struggles to pay the bills and keep the power on. She lives with her daughter, Jules, and is involved with a local Irish gang, the Butlers, that is protesting a bill that has been passed which will bus Black students to South Boston and white students to Roxbury. One of its members, Brian Shea, asks Mary Pat to put some picket signs together. Jules asks Mary Pat to take her clothes shopping, and Mary Pat agrees. On their way home, Jules expresses to Mary Pat that she is unsure of what she is living for, and appears confused by the anger over the busing policy.

Later that night, Jules’ boyfriend, Rum Collins, and her best friend, Brenda Morello, come pick her up. Mary Pat walks down the street to a...