Dom screams, but the padrone hits and kicks him while another boy urges Dom to be quiet. However, he continues to yell until another translator steps in, claiming that the padrone is not Dom’s uncle. Giosè shrugs and offers advice to the padrone, who pays him and leaves. After a while, the other translator gives Dom a sandwich. Stuffing the meat in his pocket because he cannot eat it, the boy finishes the sandwich and falls asleep.

Once everyone is gone, Giosè wakes Dom. The other translator writes down that Dom came from Napoli. When Dom does not reveal his name, the men suggest “di Napoli” for his last name because if it is “Napoli,” everyone will assume he is Jewish, and his life will be difficult in America. At this, Dom thinks of his family and insists on “Napoli.” Then, they record “Dom” as his first name, as well as his age and birth date. 

When Dom insists on returning to Napoli, the men deem that impossible, so he must survive alone or risk going to an orphanage. As a nurse grabs Dom to lead him away, the men give him the papers.

The nurse leads Dom to where a group of people sit, and she writes an O on his shirt. Waiting quietly, Dom observes as some are led away. He is ushered to a dorm room and told to wash up before dinner. Refusing to bathe in front of others, Dom slips away to a bathroom, but it is occupied. He listens as a woman argues about paying her passage to America while an official tells her that unescorted women cannot leave Ellis Island. 

Dom keeps his head down and eventually knocks on the bathroom door. A boy pulls him inside and alerts Dom that he is marked as an orphan. After turning his shirt inside out, Dom agrees to get clothes for them from a room upstairs. Once inside that room, Dom finally looks at the papers the translators gave him. He changes and grabs extra clothes. Diverting the attention of a suspicious woman, Dom delivers the clothes to the boy, and then sneaks outside through the kitchen.

Once outside, Dom runs to where boats take immigrants to the city. Everyone has name tags pinned to their shirts, and Red Cross nurses hand out food. He learns about a boat going to Mulberry Street. Recognizing the name, Dom boards without anyone questioning him. Once in Manhattan, Dom watches a fishmonger give out extra food, and believes that Americans are devoted to helping the poor. 

He observes everything carefully before following a man to Mulberry Street. Then, a dog turd hits him, and a boy, who threw it, yells for him to leave. Dom narrowly dodges a cart and tries to help retrieve items that fall out, but he is accused of theft. A woman chastises him and instructs him to go home. Dom sees the boy from earlier being chased by a policeman. Retreating into an alley, Dom sleeps in a barrel his first night in America.

Dom wakes to the sound of horses’ hooves and is sore from sleeping in the barrel. A tinkling sound beckons him to where a boy plays a triangle for money. Dom approaches and asks about ships to Napoli. The boy points toward one called Bolivia, and Dom heads there. 

When two bricklayers talk in Napoletano, he asks about the ship’s destination and declares that he will sneak on it to return to Italy. The men scoff at him, declaring that he will get caught and be sent to an orphanage. When a boat from Ellis Island docks, a group of Irishmen ask a policeman about work, and the Italians scoff at them too. Overhearing a comment about working in Chatham Square, Dom determines to find work there until he can sneak onto the ship.

Hungry, Dom returns to the boy with the triangle to ask for food. When the boy ignores him, he asks about Chatham Square. After mocking Dom and his fancy shoes, the boy reveals that he works for a padrone, playing songs from Tin Pan Alley, 28th Street where popular American songs are written. The boy offers to let Dom play the triangle for money, but only in exchange for his shoes. Dom refuses and heads to Chatham Square, which abuts Mulberry Street. There, he sees another boy, with welts on his back, begging.

Dom runs into the kid who threw the turd at him the night before and asks about jobs. The boy peppers him with questions, assuming Dom is established in New York because of his shoes. He tells Dom that the Irish, not the Italians, get the good jobs. When he, too, wants Dom’s shoes, Dom leaves. 

Dom goes to a produce vendor and convinces the man to let him arrange displays of fruit. Practiced at stacking his Nonna’s yarn, Dom impresses the man and is paid in two tomatoes and an orange. He finds the boy from earlier, Gaetano, and gives him a tomato. When the boy questions his generosity, Dom explains how when a person receives, they should give. Gaetano calls Dom “the king of Mulberry Street” for his generosity.

Gaetano offers his protection if Dom can get four pennies. After being denied work in a sandwich shop, Dom returns to the boy with the triangle. Calling him Tin Pan Alley, Dom temporarily exchanges his shoes to play the triangle. After earning many coins, he asks Tin Pan Alley to accompany him to deliver the four cents. 

When they all meet, Gaetano and Tin Pan Alley are hostile to each other, slinging insults like “mook,” which suggests incompetence, and “shark,” which refers to a shrewd boss (104). Gaetano uses the money to buy ice cream for Dom and himself. However, Dom shares with Tin Pan Alley. After learning what the insults mean, Dom gets a stomachache from the ice cream.