Eilis Lacey is from a small Irish town where there are no good employment prospects for her or her brothers, who have emigrated to Liverpool to find work.Instead of migrating to Liverpool though, she has an opportunity to go to America thanks to the kind sponsorship of Father Flood and her unselfish scheming sister Rose.
After surviving the long torturous boat ride to America, Eilis struggles to adjust to life in Brooklyn, where she has a room in Mrs. Kehoe's boarding house and a job as a sales girl in a department store.
Not forming close relationships with her housemates or Mrs. Kehoe, Eilis feels isolated and home sick.
She enrolls in night classes for Accounting to keep herself busy, and then meets Tony, a first generation Italian who lives with his two brothers & parents in a one bedroom apartment.
Spending time with Eilis dissipates her loneliness as she explores American culture, including attending a baseball game and rooting for the Dodgers.
When they plan a trip to Coney Island, Eilis wonders what to wear to the beach with her co-worker Miss Fortini:
"In Ireland no one looks," Eilis said. "It would be bad manners."
"In Italy it would be bad manners not to look."
An unexpected family death brings her home, where she returns with an aura of someone who has survived building a new life in another country.
Eilis is a changed, more confident woman who now gains the attention of previous potential suitor Jim, whose family owns the family pub, making him a bachelor with prospects.
She slips easily & comfortably back into her home village and is tempted to stay, when word of her relationship with Tony gets back to the village and she is jarred back into the life she had created in America.
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