Father Monroe publicly shames 16-year-old Catherine at the church altar in Goleen and expels her from her town.

Seán's drunken father breaks into the flat, beats Seán to death, and Catherine goes into labor holding the injured Jack.

A nun delivers Catherine's newborn son to Maude and Charles Avery, who name him Cyril and remind him he is not truly theirs.

Young Cyril meets Julian Woodbead when Julian's father Max visits Dartmouth Square, and Cyril notices his stutter vanishes around Julian.

Charles is convicted of tax evasion and jailed; Max buys Dartmouth Square cheaply and evicts Maude and Cyril.

Cyril visits a doctor who stabs his testicles with a needle while naming famous men, attempting to cure him of being gay.

Mary-Margaret sends a police officer to follow Cyril; a political explosion kills both the officer and Mary-Margaret, allowing Cyril to escape.

Cyril confesses his sexuality to Julian outside the wedding church; Julian punches him, renounces their friendship, and demands he marry Alice.

Cyril marries Alice but abandons her at the hotel hours later and boards a plane to Amsterdam alone.

Jack Smoot introduces Cyril to Bastiaan at MacIntyre's pub in Amsterdam, and Cyril falls in love for the first time.

Cyril and Bastiaan find a wounded teenage boy named Ignac on their doorstep and take him in as their own.

Cyril volunteers at a New York hospital and discovers that one of the dying AIDS patients is Julian Woodbead.

Julian dies in Cyril's arms at the hospital after forgiving Cyril and declaring their mutual love.

A group of men assault Cyril and Bastiaan near Central Park, killing Bastiaan and permanently injuring Cyril's leg.

Catherine marries for the first time at 86, and Cyril walks her down the aisle, finally filled with profound love.

Catherine Goggin is expelled from her Irish village for being pregnant out of wedlock, setting in motion a life of survival that will unknowingly shape her son's fate. Her son Cyril is adopted by the emotionally cold Avery family and grows up hidden and lonely, falling into an obsessive love for his best friend Julian while concealing his sexuality in a country where being gay is illegal. After a string of failed attempts to live as a straight man, Cyril abandons his new wife Alice and flees to Amsterdam, where he meets Bastiaan and finally experiences true love and an open life. The joy of his Amsterdam years is shattered when he moves to New York during the AIDS epidemic and discovers Julian dying in a hospital bed, forcing a final reckoning between the two lifelong friends. Tragedy follows when Bastiaan is murdered in a hate crime, but Cyril rebuilds his life in Dublin, reconnecting with his family and eventually discovering that the fearless woman he has admired his whole life is his biological mother. The novel closes with Cyril at peace, walking Catherine down the aisle at her very first wedding as Ireland legalizes gay marriage.

The landmark events of Cyril Avery's life from birth to final peace.

Catherine meets Seán MacIntyre on the bus to Dublin, and he invites her to stay with him and Jack Smoot.

Catherine is fired from the Dáil tearoom after male patrons complain that her obvious pregnancy puts them off their tea.

Max Woodbead bursts into the Averys' dinner party and punches Charles after discovering Charles had an affair with Max's wife.

Cyril and Julian sneak from a school trip to the Dáil tearoom and are caught drinking Guinness by manager Catherine.

Max publishes a controversial pro-Crown article in the Irish Times, and a political rebel shoots off his ear in retaliation.

Cyril confesses his sexual fantasies about boys to a priest in a confessional, and the priest immediately suffers a fatal heart attack.

Cyril begins dating the unpleasant Mary-Margaret in a desperate attempt to convince himself he is not gay.

After leaving Alice at the hotel, Cyril strips naked, climbs onto the balcony railing over Dublin, and nearly lets go.

Cyril befriends Jack Smoot, the Irish pub owner in Amsterdam, not yet knowing Jack is Catherine's closest friend.

Damir arrives at MacIntyre's pub to reclaim Ignac; Jack stabs Damir in the back and Catherine helps dispose of the body.

Julian tells Cyril he contracted AIDS but refuses to let his family know, blaming gay men for spreading the disease.

Cyril writes to Alice to apologize for abandoning her, and Liam initially rejects Cyril when they first meet.

Charles develops a brain tumor, moves into Dartmouth Square to die, and tells Cyril he came damn close to being a real Avery.

Ignac brings Cyril to his hometown of Maribor in Slovenia, walking him through the painful streets of his past.

Cyril and Catherine travel to Goleen together to visit the church where she was cast out and the graves of her past.

Before Cyril enters the world, his mother Catherine is already fighting for survival in Dublin, finding work and unexpected solidarity with two gay men whose fate will echo through her son's life decades later. Cyril's childhood is shaped by the dysfunction of the Avery household, his growing obsession with Julian, and the social repression that forces him into secrecy at every turn. His awkward attempts to date women, the disasters of his working life, and the near-arrests of his young adulthood paint a picture of a man desperately trying to exist in a world that has no place for him. In Amsterdam and New York, secondary moments — befriending Jack Smoot without knowing his connection to Catherine, the night Damir nearly destroys everything, and the slow devastating toll of the AIDS ward — give texture to Cyril's years of hard-won freedom. Returning to Ireland, Cyril painstakingly repairs his relationship with his son Liam and watches Charles face death with unexpected warmth and grace. These scenes form the connective tissue of Cyril's life, revealing how much meaning hides in the moments history tends to overlook.

The supporting scenes that built the world around Cyril.

Catherine refuses to name her baby's father to Father Monroe and boards a one-way train to Dublin, beginning a new life alone.

Catherine realizes Seán and Jack are lovers when Seán's drunken father appears at the flat, moments before the violent attack begins.

Julian proposes that he and Cyril show each other their penises, and Cyril experiences romantic feelings for another male for the first time.

Police searching the boys' dormitory during Julian's kidnapping investigation find Cyril's hidden letters of erotic fantasy about Julian.

A press officer attacks Cyril in the Dáil hallway; Catherine rescues him, and Cyril tells her he is gay.

Cyril kisses Mary-Margaret for the first time and experiences no attraction whatsoever — what he calls a Great Shriveling.

Julian discovers a gay bodybuilding magazine in Cyril's bedroom and warns him to destroy it before someone gets the wrong idea.

Alice warns Cyril weeks before the wedding that she was once left at the altar and urges him to confess the truth.

On his wedding morning, Cyril sits with a boy named Jonathan Goggin on a bench, unknowingly spending time with his half-brother.

Cyril spots a photograph of Seán MacIntyre on the wall of Jack's Amsterdam pub and begins to sense the connections in his life.

Ignac returns Cyril's stolen wallet, apologizes, and asks if he can stay the night — the moment their family truly begins.

Julian reveals from his hospital bed that Alice never annulled their marriage and that Cyril has a son named Liam.

Liam calls Cyril Dad for the first time at the hospital when his second son is born on Christmas morning.

Catherine mentions the hunchbacked redemptorist nun who took her first baby, and Cyril suddenly understands that Catherine is his mother.

Ireland votes by referendum to legalize gay marriage, filling Cyril with joy for the future and grief for the life he lost.

From Catherine's defiant refusal to name her child's father to Cyril's first experience of sexual feeling in childhood, the novel is built around revelations that redirect entire lives without anyone fully understanding them in the moment. Throughout Cyril's youth, hidden truths accumulate — secret letters discovered by police, a priest struck dead by confession, a kiss that confirms an absence of feeling — while connections between characters quietly knit themselves together across decades. By the time Cyril reaches the altar, he has already missed every opportunity to be honest, and the consequences of that dishonesty fracture his most important relationships for years. In Amsterdam, small turning points — a photograph on a pub wall, a stolen wallet returned — begin to restore Cyril's faith in human connection and set his makeshift family in motion. The revelations of the novel's second half arrive with devastating force: the existence of a son he never knew, a loved one dying in a hospital room, and finally the recognition of his own mother after a lifetime of missed chances. These are the moments that define not merely what happens to Cyril, but who he ultimately chooses to be.