Eilis is summoned to Miss Kelly's shop and offered a job on Sundays because of her reputation for good math skills.

Father Flood visits Eilis's home for tea and reveals he can help her emigrate to Brooklyn for better opportunities.

Eilis's family sees her off at the ship that begins her long voyage from Ireland to America.

Eilis starts her first day working on the floor at Bartocci's department store in Brooklyn.

Eilis receives her first letters from home and falls into a severe, paralyzing bout of homesickness.

Father Flood enrolls Eilis in bookkeeping night classes at Brooklyn College to help her build a new life.

Eilis volunteers at Father Flood's Christmas dinner and a destitute Irish man sings to her in Gaelic.

A young Italian man named Tony introduces himself to Eilis at a Friday parish dance and they dance all night.

After passing her bookkeeping exams, Tony takes Eilis to spend a celebratory day at Coney Island beach.

Father Flood delivers the news that Eilis's sister Rose has been found dead in her bedroom.

A letter from Eilis's brother Jack arrives asking her to return to Ireland to care for their grieving mother.

Eilis and Tony secretly marry in a small civil ceremony and celebrate the rest of the day at Coney Island.

Eilis returns to Enniscorthy and her mother takes her to see Rose's empty bedroom.

Miss Kelly calls Eilis into her shop and implies through a veiled conversation that she knows Eilis is already married.

Eilis books her return passage at the post office and prepares to leave Enniscorthy for Brooklyn.

Pool 1 traces the central arc of Eilis Lacey's life, beginning with her limited prospects in Enniscorthy and ending with her resolute return to Brooklyn. Father Flood arranges her passage to America, where she starts a new career at Bartocci's and fights through severe homesickness before enrolling in bookkeeping classes. She meets and falls in love with Tony, and their relationship deepens through beach days, family dinners, and shared grief after the sudden death of her sister Rose. The news of Rose's death and her brother's plea draw Eilis back to Ireland, where she struggles with her mother's need for her and the pull of her old life. Tony insists on a secret marriage before she leaves, and the marriage ultimately forces her hand when Miss Kelly exposes her secret in Enniscorthy. Eilis books her return passage and leaves Ireland behind, choosing the life she has built in Brooklyn.

Eilis's defining journey from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn and back.

Jim Farrell appears ready to ask Eilis to dance at the local hall but steps back and ignores her entirely.

Eilis realizes that her sister Rose secretly arranged for Father Flood to help her emigrate to America.

On the Atlantic crossing, Eilis meets her bunkmate Georgina, a worldly English woman returning to the United States.

Locked out of the ship's bathroom during a storm at sea, Eilis is forced to use a mop bucket and later vomits in the hallway.

Eilis moves into Mrs. Kehoe's boardinghouse in Brooklyn and struggles to sleep through the heat and adjust to the strict house rules.

Bartocci's holds an unannounced nylon sale and Eilis buys discounted nylons for herself, Rose, her mother, and Mrs. Kehoe.

Mrs. Kehoe offers Eilis the private basement room — the best in the house — when another boarder moves out.

Bartocci's begins selling stockings for Black women and assigns Eilis to the new counter, creating tension among other staff.

Eilis finally tells Tony she loves him and he immediately invites her to come to dinner with his family.

Tony takes Eilis and his brothers to a Brooklyn Dodgers game, where he ignores her entirely in his baseball excitement.

Tony reveals that he and his brothers bought land on Long Island to build houses and asks Eilis to move there with him.

After Father Flood holds a mass for Rose, Eilis insists on returning to work that same day, proud of her resilience.

Eilis discovers her mother has already accepted Nancy's wedding invitation on her behalf, silently extending Eilis's stay in Ireland.

After a night out at a dance together, Eilis and Jim Farrell share their first kiss.

On the morning of her departure, Eilis leaves a note at Jim Farrell's house promising to write and explain her sudden return.

Pool 2 captures significant but less headline-grabbing events that give texture and shape to Eilis's story in both Ireland and Brooklyn. It begins with Jim Farrell's dismissive snub at the local dance and Eilis's realization that Rose secretly orchestrated her entire emigration. In Brooklyn, she navigates the discomforts of Mrs. Kehoe's boardinghouse, the chaos of the Bartocci's nylon sale, and the quiet honor of being given the coveted basement room. Her relationship with Tony deepens as she tells him she loves him, watches him lose himself in a Dodgers game, and hears his ambitious plans for a Long Island home. Back in Ireland after Rose's death, her mother's quiet manipulation extends her stay, and a stolen kiss with Jim Farrell tempts her before she slips away the next morning, leaving a note at his door.

The quieter milestones shaping Eilis's life on both sides of the Atlantic.

When Eilis informs Miss Kelly she is leaving for America, Miss Kelly immediately dismisses her from the shop.

Before arriving in New York, Georgina does Eilis's makeup on the ship and Eilis sees a new confident version of herself in the mirror.

Miss Fortini notices Eilis is struggling at work and sends her to the break room before contacting Father Flood for help.

Father Flood meets Eilis at Bartocci's and tells her that homesickness will pass if she stays busy and finds someone to talk to.

Father Flood asks Eilis to volunteer serving Christmas dinner to the destitute elderly Irish men of the Brooklyn parish.

Patty does Eilis's hair and makeup at the Friday dance, and a man named Tony notices Eilis from across the room.

Tony takes Eilis to a diner on their first date and admits he came to the Irish dance because he likes Irish girls.

Tony tells Eilis he loves her and she briefly pulls away, afraid that committing to him means never returning to Ireland.

At a family dinner, Eilis meets Tony's parents and brothers, including Frank who bluntly accuses Irish people of attacking his brother Maurice.

Miss Fortini makes Eilis uncomfortable during a bathing suit fitting by reaching under the elastic and commenting that she must shave.

After learning Rose has died, Eilis speaks with her devastated mother on the phone at Father Flood's parish.

A grief-stricken Eilis quietly brings Tony into the boardinghouse late at night and they have sex for the first time.

Eilis visits Father Flood and asks him to help convince Bartocci's to grant her a month's leave to return to Ireland.

Nancy tricks Eilis into going to the beach with Jim Farrell, whose patient charm gradually breaks through her cold resolve.

Eilis realizes Jim is too conventional to ever accept her married situation and firmly commits to returning to Brooklyn.

Pool 3 focuses on the pivotal moments where Eilis is forced to make choices or confront uncomfortable truths about herself and the world around her. From her abrupt dismissal by Miss Kelly to a transformative glimpse of a new self in the ship's mirror, early events mark the beginning of her growing confidence and independence. In Brooklyn, Father Flood's intervention rescues her from homesickness, and her deepening relationship with Tony pushes her toward commitment even as she fears what that commitment means for her ties to home. Rose's death brings grief, an unexpected first intimacy with Tony, and a complex return to Ireland where Jim Farrell's gentle charm and her mother's quiet pressure test her resolve. Ultimately, Eilis's clear-eyed recognition that Jim is too conventional and her life too changed forces the decision that defines her: she chooses Brooklyn and the woman she has become there.