A car accident kills Saoirse's father and a hitchhiker on the day Eileen brings newborn Saoirse home from the hospital.

Paudie is arrested by police for hiding illegal weapons and explosives for the IRA in his barn.

Saoirse travels with Eileen to Dirt Island at age fifteen for her maternal grandmother's funeral.

At the wake, uncle Richard tells Saoirse that Eileen broke their parents' hearts and calls her mother a slur.

Saoirse and Breedie are invited backstage at Friary Castle, and Saoirse accompanies the singer to his van.

Saoirse wakes to find a shaken, bruised Breedie accusing her of having abandoned her during the night.

Breedie stops coming to school, and Saoirse learns that she has died by suicide.

Saoirse discovers she is pregnant and Eileen screams at her, threatening to throw her out of the house.

Paudie and Chris visit the house and convince Eileen and Nana to accept Saoirse's pregnancy without shame.

Saoirse gives birth to a daughter at seventeen after months of tense preparation with Eileen and Nana.

Paudie calls the family and spontaneously suggests naming the newborn Pearl, and the name sticks.

Word reaches the family that Paudie has died in his sleep inside prison before he could be released.

Saoirse returns home to find Richard choking Eileen on the kitchen floor; Josh tackles him and Richard flees.

Josh delivers his finished manuscript, and Saoirse discovers he has distorted her family into unrecognisable, pulpy characters.

Eileen and Saoirse drive Pearl to the airport, where she departs for New York to visit Josh and Honey.

The Queen of Dirt Island begins with a tragedy: Saoirse is brought home from the hospital as a newborn the same day her father is killed in a car accident, shaping the lives of Eileen and Saoirse forever. Growing up in a household of women, Saoirse navigates the social pressures of rural Ireland, culminating in her assault at the hands of a band singer and the birth of her daughter Pearl. The shadow of the Troubles runs through the family via Saoirse's uncle Paudie, whose IRA involvement leads to his imprisonment and eventual death in jail. The women's greatest external threat comes from Eileen's brother Richard, whose entitlement over inherited land drives him to physically attack Eileen in her own home. Saoirse's romantic relationship with Josh ends dramatically when he reveals how he has twisted her family's story into a self-serving manuscript. The novel closes with hope and expansion as Pearl, freed from the constrictions that bound her mother and grandmother, leaves Ireland for New York.

The headline events of three generations of Aylward women.

Paudie returns from his first prison stay with bandaged hands, claiming British soldiers tortured him for information.

On an annual visit to her father's grave, Saoirse's family is greeted by Sally, the other accident victim's daughter.

Chris stumbles through a marriage proposal to Eileen, who yanks him into the kitchen and firmly rejects him.

Eileen takes a job as a bookmaker, and Saoirse witnesses her slapping a rude customer to laughter from the crowd.

A car arrives and Saoirse hears her mother call the visiting man 'Daddy,' revealing her maternal grandfather for the first time.

At the bottom of a wedding photograph, Saoirse spots a date revealing she was born four months after her parents married.

Breedie Flynn refuses to leave the school bus until Saoirse agrees to come to Friary Castle, and they run laughing from boys.

Saoirse suffers a sudden cramp during pregnancy and is rushed to hospital, where an ultrasound shows the baby still has a heartbeat.

Oonagh Jones confronts Saoirse outside her home over the pregnancy, and Eileen headbutts Oonagh to defend her daughter.

Chris and Doreen marry at the Church of the Holy Spirit while a disapproving Nana watches from the corner.

Honey and Saoirse build a close friendship, going on long daily walks through the countryside with Pearl.

Men in black berets and sunglasses carry Paudie's coffin to the grave, shouting slogans in Irish as he is lowered in.

Doreen confronts Saoirse about leaving Pearl unattended near the lake, then urgently apologises and admits feeling lonely and neglected by Chris.

Eileen visits her dying father a second time but finds him too ill to recognise her before he dies days later.

Eileen sells her inherited land on Dirt Island to Richard, using the proceeds to secure Pearl's future education.

This pool captures the secondary events that give texture and context to the lives of the Aylward women across decades. From Paudie's return from his first prison stint and Sally's appearance at the family gravesite, through Eileen's new job and Saoirse's first meetings with her long-absent grandparents, the early events establish the social pressures defining the family. The middle section covers Saoirse's pregnancy crisis and its social fallout — from a hospital scare to a street confrontation with Oonagh — as the community's judgment closes in around her. Chris's marriage to Doreen introduces a new and ill-fitting presence into the extended family, while Honey's friendship with Saoirse provides warmth and hope during Pearl's infancy. The consequences of Paudie's death and Doreen's troubled psychology play out in smaller but significant moments before the novel resolves with Eileen's act of generosity in selling her inherited land to secure Pearl's future.

The supporting scenes that shape the Aylward family's world.

Nana tells Saoirse stories about uncles Paudie and Chris and makes her solemnly promise to visit them after Nana is gone.

Eileen slaps Saoirse across the face after Saoirse repeats what uncle Richard said about Eileen at the Dirt Island wake.

Saoirse watches Breedie self-harm during a private moment and refuses when Breedie offers her the same experience.

Saoirse recalls a memory of people peering into the singer's van and laughing, and realises she was drugged and assaulted.

Nana accepts Saoirse's pregnancy and tells her there is no point in living in the past, signalling a family reconciliation.

On Pearl's first birthday, the family gathers to watch a home film Honey made showing all of them together joyfully.

Nana decides to move out of the farm and into Eileen and Saoirse's house to escape living alongside Doreen.

Honey tells Saoirse she needs a break from Josh and leaves town unexpectedly, asking Saoirse to look after him.

Nana suffers a stroke in her armchair, and Josh surprises everyone by visiting every day to help care for her.

Nana tells Saoirse that Josh is clearly in love with her and pushes her to stop pretending otherwise.

Josh kisses Saoirse during an evening walk, beginning a secret relationship she later decides to make physical.

Chris retrieves Pearl safely from Doreen at the poolside, but Doreen throws herself into the deep water and drowns.

Josh admits to Saoirse that he still speaks to Honey on the phone several times each week and asks her not to be angry.

A tourist assaults Saoirse in public and Josh drags her away instead of defending her, as he once defended Honey.

Saoirse finishes writing her own novel titled The Queen of Dirt Island, which is published to widespread critical acclaim.

This pool follows the moments of revelation and transformation that quietly redirect the course of the story. Early turning points include Nana binding Saoirse to her family legacy, Eileen striking her own daughter in the aftermath of Richard's cruelty, and Saoirse bearing witness to Breedie's self-harm before her own devastating awakening to what happened in the singer's van. The middle arc tracks how the family reforms around Pearl's birth — through Nana's acceptance, her sudden stroke, and her unlikely role in nudging Saoirse and Josh together — before Doreen's tragic end at the poolside marks the end of one era. The pool's final movement exposes the fault lines in Saoirse's relationship with Josh: his secret phone calls to Honey, his failure to protect Saoirse in public as he once protected Honey, and his selfish distortion of her memories all lead to their separation. The pool closes with Saoirse reclaiming her story through her own published novel, the ultimate act of self-authorship.