An Irishman arrives at Eilis's door claiming Tony got his wife pregnant and plans to leave the baby with Eilis.

Eilis confronts Tony in bed that night and he admits the affair is real, apologizing for not telling her sooner.

Eilis visits Frank, Tony's lawyer brother, who reveals that Francesca already knows and has arranged for Tony to adopt the baby.

Francesca visits Eilis to discuss what she wants, and Eilis realizes the visit is designed to make her appear to be the villain.

Eilis receives a letter from her mother in Ireland and notices that Jim Farrell is the one person not mentioned.

Eilis tells her children Larry and Rosella about Tony's affair and announces she will travel to Ireland to visit her mother.

Eilis arrives in Enniscorthy to visit her mother for her 80th birthday and is met with a cold and critical reception.

Eilis visits Nancy Sheridan and asks if Jim ever married; Nancy lies and says Jim is seeing someone in Dublin.

Jim signals Eilis into a private stairwell at Miriam's wedding and tells her he wants to see her again.

Jim asks Eilis for a ride home from the wedding, saying he drank too much, and suggests she meet him secretly at his apartment.

Eilis meets Jim at his apartment and he confesses his regrets, then proposes they spend the night together in Dublin before her children arrive.

Eilis collects Larry and Rosella from the airport, privately remembering her night with Jim in Dublin and his promise to follow her to America.

Eilis opens a letter from Francesca addressed to Rosella containing a photograph of Tony's new daughter, Helen Frances.

Eilis tells Jim at the Cush cottage that she is leaving Tony; they declare their love and he promises to follow her to America.

Nancy sees Jim and Eilis kissing on the beach at Cush, races back to town, and publicly announces her engagement to Jim Farrell.

Eilis's life on Long Island is upended when an Irishman arrives at her door revealing that her husband Tony fathered his wife's unborn child. Despite Tony's apology and his family's efforts to bring the baby into their fold, Eilis stands firm in her refusal and decides to visit her mother in Enniscorthy. Back in Ireland, she reconnects with her old friend Nancy and reignites her feelings for Jim Farrell, her former love interest. After a series of carefully hidden meetings, Jim and Eilis spend a night together in Dublin and begin planning a future, with Jim promising to follow Eilis to America. When Francesca's letter makes clear that Tony's family has accepted the new baby, Eilis's decision to leave Tony becomes final, and she and Jim declare their love at the Cush cottage. Their secret is shattered when Nancy discovers them kissing on the beach and immediately announces her engagement to Jim, leaving the novel's central love triangle unresolved.

The core events of Eilis's marriage crisis and her rekindled romance with Jim.

Eilis deliberately spills Tony's bowl of stew on the floor at dinner after learning of his affair with another woman.

Mr. Dakessian offers Eilis a bookkeeping job after Tony's brothers dismiss her professional suggestions, and she accepts.

Nancy calls Jim over from his nearby pub to deal with drunk customers who are harassing her at the chip shop late at night.

Jim spots Eilis walking past his pub in town and is shaken to discover that no one told him she had returned to Enniscorthy.

Nancy coordinates a trip to Dublin with Jim for dress shopping, anxious about whether people will notice them together.

Nancy confides her plans to marry Jim to saleswoman Miss Metcalfe and buys a wedding dress, leaving the shop feeling confident about her future.

Jim learns from Martin Lacey that Eilis has escaped to the Cush cottage and drives out to find her on the beach.

Jim and Eilis have a brief and emotionally restrained conversation at the Cush beach before Jim leaves feeling embarrassed.

Nancy hears at the wedding reception that Jim was spotted in Cush and finds his car still in the lot after being told he already left.

Nancy meets with Father Walsh to discuss her plans to marry Jim in a ceremony in Rome.

Nancy goes looking for Eilis after her meeting with Father Walsh and discovers that Eilis is in Dublin on the same day as Jim.

Mrs. Lacey takes Larry on a walk through Enniscorthy to warn him about sharing private family information in a small town.

Rosella informs Eilis that Larry revealed everything about Tony to their grandmother during the walk with Mrs. Lacey.

Eilis goes to a payphone late at night and calls Jim but stays completely silent when he answers before hanging up.

Nancy shows Jim the land plot she found for their future house, but Jim seems unenthusiastic about its isolated location.

Pool 2 illuminates the smaller but essential moments that propel the novel's central conflict forward, beginning with Eilis's acts of quiet defiance on Long Island and her decision to build professional independence. In Enniscorthy, Nancy and Jim's secret relationship is revealed through their careful meetings and shared plans for the future, even as Nancy struggles with insecurity and uncertainty about her appearance and her future. Jim's world is jolted by Eilis's presence in town, while Nancy grows more confident in her relationship with Jim after their Dublin dress-shopping trip together. The pool follows Nancy and Eilis's overlapping lives as they both travel to Dublin on the same day, and traces how family confessions and private suspicions begin to fracture the walls between all three characters. When Rosella reveals that Larry has told his grandmother everything, Eilis realizes how little control she has over her own story, and her silent phone call to Jim signals how deeply she is struggling to decide. Together, these events show how ordinary choices quietly push each character toward the novel's dramatic conclusion.

The supporting moments and secondary storylines that quietly drive the love triangle forward.

Eilis argues with her father-in-law at a Fiorello Sunday lunch over the Vietnam War, and Francesca later disinvites her from future gatherings.

Eilis buys her mother new appliances as a surprise, but Mrs. Lacey refuses them, as her daily shopping trips are her primary social outlet.

Unable to sleep after learning Eilis has returned to Enniscorthy, Jim walks across town in the dark to stand outside her house.

Eilis spends the first night she has ever been completely alone at her brother's clifftop cottage in Cush, reflecting on her marriage.

During Miriam's wedding ceremony, Nancy is overcome with grief for George and struggles to balance his memory with her feelings for Jim.

Eilis deliberately avoids approaching Jim throughout the wedding reception to prevent the townspeople from noticing their connection.

Jim leads Eilis to a beach they once visited with Nancy and George after the wedding, but bad weather forces them to turn back.

Jim receives a silent phone call at 1:00 am and rushes outside to search for Eilis at a nearby payphone, finding it empty.

Jim tells Nancy's son Gerard that Nancy plans for him to take over the chip shop, privately agonizing over his divided loyalties.

Nancy visits elderly landowner Mags O'Connor at the County Home and reveals her engagement plans, convincing Mags to halve the land price.

Eilis's wealthy brother Jack pulls her aside and offers to buy her a house with no conditions, giving her the means to leave Tony.

Eilis comes home from Cush to find that Mrs. Lacey has secretly booked herself onto the same flight back to America as the family.

Mrs. Lacey reveals she searched Eilis's suitcase, found the letter from Francesca, and delivers the news that Jim and Nancy are engaged.

Nancy arrives at Jim's apartment with a cover story about the engagement news spreading and refuses to admit she saw Jim with Eilis.

Eilis confronts Jim at his pub about his relationship with Nancy, then leaves without answering his question about whether she still wants him.

Pool 3 traces the pivotal turning points that reveal who each character truly is and what they are willing to do. Eilis's isolation within the Fiorello family becomes undeniable when she is pushed out of their Sunday gatherings, and her loneliness deepens as her mother's rejection and her first night alone in Cush force her to confront the life she has built. Jim's long-suppressed feelings for Eilis resurface the moment she returns to Enniscorthy, while Nancy's confidence grows in small but decisive steps, culminating in her bold move to weaponize the town's gossip by announcing her engagement. Each character faces a private reckoning — Eilis with her finances and independence through Jack's offer, Jim with the commitments he has made to Nancy, and Nancy with the discovery that what she feared most is real. The pool ends with the novel's most charged confrontations, as both Nancy and Eilis challenge Jim in his apartment and at his pub, forcing him toward a decision he cannot bring himself to make. Jim's final act of waiting — choosing neither woman — encapsulates the novel's central tension between desire and duty.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define each character's arc.