Long Island

Jack and Pat, Eilis’s other brothers, come with their eldest sons for their mother’s birthday. The entire family attends mass, and while she sits, Eilis thinks of what to do. She decides that she must return to America to support her children in school. Eilis then knows that she must tell Jim to wait for her. When it is time for communion, Eilis’s mother makes everyone wait until they are the last to join the line. As they walk back to their pew, Eilis realizes that her mother did so to show off her family to the town.

Later, Rosella shares with Eilis that Jack, now very rich, owns their mother’s house, Martin’s cottage, and even Pat’s house. The next morning, Jack tells Eilis what he has heard from Larry: that she is planning to leave her husband. Jack offers to buy a house for her with no strings attached to help her achieve independence, and Eilis accepts. On Mrs. Lacey’s birthday, Nancy arrives and speaks with Eilis about America. When Nancy suggests “we” visit, Eilis asks who she would bring, but after a hesitation, Nancy tells her she misspoke.

Eilis continues to put off speaking with Jim until one morning, she finds a letter from Francesca addressed to Rosella. She opens it and finds a picture of Tony’s new daughter, Helen Frances. The letter is clearly written by Frank and makes it clear that the family has accepted the baby. She asks Martin if she can use his cottage and calls Jim to meet her there.

Jim sits in bed and waits for Eilis to wake up. When she does, they head down to the water to talk. Though Jim refuses to ask for her answer to him, he clings to anything she says that hints at a future together. He watches her swim in the ocean, and after Eilis dries off, they go for a walk. She asks him when he will ask her about her plans, telling him she received news from home that makes up her mind to leave Tony. She tells Jim that she is to go back with her children the next week and that Jack will help her buy a house. She questions whether Jim can accept needing to wait to be with her, that even if he follows her to America immediately, they cannot be seen together until after the divorce, and even then they must act as if they met recently. He tells her he would rather struggle in America than risk waiting for her in Ireland. When he asks what Tony did, she tells him about the baby. Before he leaves, he asks if she loves him and Eilis tells him she does and promises to contact him again before she leaves.

When Nancy’s supplier visits looking for advice on which local pub might sell toasted sandwiches, Nancy suggests Jim’s pub and volunteers to talk to him personally. She is surprised not to find him at the pub. When she returns home, she finds Larry visiting with Gerard. Larry tells her that his mother is in Cush. Nancy thinks it odd that Eilis and Jim have often been missing at the same time recently, that they have both taken recent trips to Dublin, and that Jim was even seen in Cush recently. She tries not to be suspicious, but when she remembers them speaking at the wedding, she decides to drive to Cush to assuage her anxiety.

When she arrives, she finds Jim’s car next to Eilis’s. She looks in the window of the cottage and sees an unmade bed and abandoned women’s clothes. She looks down the cliff and sees Jim and Eilis. She watches as they kiss. She races back to town, where she puts on the engagement ring George gave her and walks to Eilis’s house. Mrs. Lacey invites her in and Nancy asks her to let Eilis know she stopped by before sharing with Rosella and her grandmother that she is engaged to Jim Farrell. As she walks home, she stops everyone she sees to tell the news.

When Eilis returns home, Rosella quietly tells Eilis that Eilis’s mother is coming back with them to America and that this was always her plan. Mrs. Lacey calls them into the kitchen and tells Eilis that she is finally taking her invitation to visit, and that she changed Eilis’s ticket so that the return date matches her own and the children’s. Later, Eilis finds that the letter from Francesca is gone from her suitcase. She tries to convince her mother that she should wait to come, as the children will be at school and Eilis herself at work. Her mother admits to knowing that there is trouble at home and shows the letter, promising not to tell Rosella about how Eilis hid it. Eilis’ mother then delivers the news that Nancy is engaged to Jim, much to the shock of Eilis, who believes she is joking.

Eilis goes to the phone booth to call Jim and confirm that he is not engaged to anyone. When he does not pick up, she begins to wonder at his strange insistence on uprooting himself to join her as quickly as possible. When Eilis returns home, her mother asks if Rosella knows about her past with Jim, and Eilis pleads with her not to say anything. Eilis’s mother asks if she still has feelings for Jim, saying that she knew all along about Nancy and Jim, since a friend of hers saw Nancy leave his house in the middle of the night. Eilis returns to the phone booth but cannot reach Jim, though when she calls the pub, they tell her that he is upstairs. She decides to go and find him in person.

When Jim returns to the pub, he asks Shane to call Colette over, and then goes upstairs to begin packing. The phone rings, but afraid that it may be Nancy, he does not answer. As he packs, Jim reflects on how he will miss his life in Enniscorthy and struggle with a lonely life in America. When Colette arrives, she is serious and asks when he planned to tell her, saying Nancy told her of the engagement on the street. Colette leaves when Nancy arrives, and Nancy tells him numerous details about how someone found out and spread the news, forcing her to put the ring on and share the news herself. Jim realizes that she knows about Eilis and that he is seeing her lie for the first time. He will not accept her challenge to tell the truth and finds himself agreeing to host her at midnight with champagne to celebrate.

Nancy leaves before Eilis arrives. Eilis asks Jim how Nancy knows about them and why he did not tell her about his relationship with Nancy. Eilis stays calm but quiet, and Jim, unsure of what to do, finally asks what she will do if he calls her one day, saying he is in New York to see her. They sit in silence for a long time, and Eilis leaves without saying a word. Jim goes down to the pub to meet a raucous chorus of congratulations, though he soon feels overwhelmed and takes some champagne back to his apartment. He waits, thinking he will go to Eilis’s house and ask the same question again, but cannot bring himself to leave. He waits for Nancy to come, hoping he will have a better idea of what to do the next day.