Brooklyn

Winter arrives, and Eilis watches as the city bundles up. She finds the cold worse than that of Ireland, and one day, when she returns home from work, Mrs. Kehoe calls her into her sitting room to tell her that she is getting the basement room, which she considers the best in the house, because Miss Keegan is leaving. She tells Eilis she is giving her the room because of her polite manners, but Eilis knows this will cause drama with the other boarders. The other girls soon find out and Miss McAdam tells Eilis that Miss Keegan left after a man followed her home and flashed her. Eilis hopes this isn’t true, thinking Miss McAdam only said it to scare her.

Father Flood begins hosting dances on Friday nights to raise money for the parish, and the boardinghouse prepares to attend the first one. Patty and Diana go out before the dance while Sheila and Miss McAdam remain home and wait for the dance to begin. Mrs. Kehoe disapproves of these dances, saying that Italians ruined the last one. Eilis stays with Miss McAdam and Sheila, and at the dance, she watches with envy as Patty and Diana have fun while she sits with the others and goes home early. Bartocci’s begins selling stockings for Black women, and Eilis is assigned to the new counter for such sales. She notices a new tension in the store as some employees disapprove of Bartocci’s new, more inclusive policy.

A new girl, Dolores, arrives, and her status as a cleaner unites the other boarders against her. They do not want her to eat with them, but Eilis refuses to help them convince Mrs. Kehoe to block her from the table. That week, Mrs. Kehoe asks Eilis to bring Dolores to the dance. Eilis agrees, though she is unhappy as she does not like the girl. At the dance, Patty brings Eilis to the bathroom and does her makeup and hair. She spends the night with Patty’s group and notices a man watching her. He asks her to dance, introducing himself as Tony. He is kind and matches her energy as they dance through the night before he asks to walk her home. Tony admits to Eilis that he is not Irish but Italian, and he asks her out on a date before next week’s dance. She agrees, knowing this will free her from her housemates.

Tony picks Eilis up the following Friday, and they eat at a diner. His full name is Antonio Giuseppe Fiorello, and he is a plumber. They begin dating weekly, and Eilis tells him that she is taking bookkeeping classes to help with her homesickness. He admits to her that he attended the dance because he likes Irish girls. He begins walking her home from classes each week, and one day they go to see Singing in the Rain, beginning a weekly trip to the movies on Saturdays. She writes to Rose about him, worried that she won’t approve of his plumbing job, and at the next dance, Father Flood makes sure to meet him, which Eilis expects is a request from Rose to make sure Tony is all right. Tony and Father Flood talk excitedly about the Dodgers, and in her next letter, Rose tells Eilis that Father Flood likes him but is personally worried that Eilis is not seeing anyone else.

Exams for bookkeeping arrive, and though Eilis is already feeling pressure, her stress is amplified when Tony begins saying he loves her and wants their kids to be Dodgers fans. She pulls away one night as he walks her home. He is advancing their relationship too quickly, planning their summer and the future beyond. She feels conflicted, especially as a commitment to him means a commitment to not returning home. After her next class, she watches him waiting for her from a window and realizes that he is the same when he is not with her as when they are together. She tells him she loves him but warns him to take their relationship slower.

After her exams are complete, Tony invites Eilis to dinner with his family. He warns her of his kid brother Frank, and when she arrives Frank immediately tells Eilis that the family does not like Irish people, as some beat up their brother Maurice. After some scolding, he apologizes, and Eilis enjoys the meal and the new food. When asked how she knows how to eat spaghetti, she admits that she practiced with her roommates. Halfway through dinner, Tony is pulled away to fix a neighbor’s pipe, and Frank asks Eilis if Tony has brought her to Coney Island yet, saying that his last girlfriend broke up with him after he took her on a ride at the park that made her throw up.

Eilis tells Miss Fortini about Tony’s plans to take her to the beach that summer, and Miss Fortini warns her to watch her figure and commits to helping her get a discounted bathing suit through a friend. She brings the bathing suits after work and makes Eilis uncomfortable by watching her change and reaching under the elastic, making comments about how she must shave while her hands linger. When Eilis passes her bookkeeping classes, Tony brings her to Coney Island to celebrate. They board a packed train on a Sunday and find a place on the crowded beach. They go swimming and while Tony is averse to the cold, Eilis finds she is used to it, swimming out and coming back for him to hold and kiss her.

The summer heat settles in, and Eilis revels in the air-conditioning of Bartocci’s. Baseball is also in full swing and Tony, excited, buys tickets for himself, Eilis, and his three brothers. At the game, Tony stops paying attention to Eilis, and rather than feeling neglected, she finds that she is happy he can enjoy himself. Eilis spends Thanksgiving with Tony’s family but won’t come for Christmas because she not only wants to help Father Flood at the church but also wants some time to herself. Tony tells Eilis that he and his brothers bought a plot of land on Long Island and plan to build five houses on it: one for his parents, three to sell, and one, he hopes, for himself and Eilis. He essentially proposes to Eilis, asking if she would move with him, and she agrees. Eilis struggles to write to her family candidly, not wanting it to seem like she is choosing to be with Tony only because he is the first man she has dated.

One day, Eilis watches as Father Flood comes into Bartocci’s but does not approach her. Miss Fortini soon brings her to the office, and she can sense that something is wrong. Father Flood tells Eilis that her mother found Rose dead in her room that morning, believing that she must have died in her sleep. Eilis sobs, questioning why she ever came to America, and Father Flood comforts her, bringing her to the parish to speak on the phone with her mother. Her mother tells her that Rose knew she had a bad heart but kept it secret, wanting to continue living her life as she did. Eilis’s mother tells her she will say goodbye to Rose for her. The next day, Father Flood holds a mass for Rose, after which Eilis insists on going to work, proud of her resilience. Tony walks with her everywhere, and she is happy that he lets her be silent in her grief, not pushing her to talk with him. She receives a letter from her brother Jack, detailing the days of the wake and funeral. Their mother is devastated and wants one of her children to return home to be with her. Each of the brothers has refused, and Jack tells Eilis that their mother would love to see her.

Eilis is distraught because of the letter. Despite the late hour, she goes to see Tony, who takes her to a nearby diner. She shows him the letter and he is upset. She worries that he thinks she will leave him to return to Ireland permanently. He walks her home and they cry outside the house, neither wishing to part. She quietly brings him in and they have sex for the first time. Throughout the night, Eilis feels as though she can seek comfort in him and feels committed to him. The next morning, Mrs. Kehoe is silent, and Diana suggests to Eilis it is because she knows Tony stayed overnight. She makes Tony go to confession with her and they go to an Italian priest. The priest asks Eilis if she will marry Tony, and she shows indecisiveness.

Mrs. Kehoe begins locking the gate to the basement room, forcing Eilis to come through the house to get to her room. She notices that her mother’s letters are becoming sadder and more desperate, and she feels that Father Flood is acting strangely toward her, suspecting that Mrs. Kehoe told him of Tony. She goes to speak with him, although she is unwilling to admit any wrongdoing, and asks him to help convince Bartocci’s to let her visit her mother for a month before she moves into a bookkeeping role. He promises to ask if she makes up with Mrs. Kehoe, suggesting she just be nice to her. Father Flood succeeds in convincing Bartocci’s to let her go, and when Mrs. Kehoe invites Eilis up for tea one day, Eilis makes sure to thank her for installing the lock on the gate to keep her safe.

On their walk home one day, Eilis tells Tony that she is going home for a month and he asks her to marry him before she goes back. He believes that if they don’t marry, she won’t return from Ireland. He understands how difficult this time is for her and admits that he does not know how he would handle the grief if one of his brothers died. She agrees, and he sets a date for a secret wedding after her final exams. The Sunday before the date, they have a special dinner with Tony’s family, and Eilis wonders if he told them. The date comes and they take half days, getting married before taking the train to Coney Island as a celebration. Eilis wonders aloud if they will ever tell their children about their secret wedding.