Brooklyn

1950. Despite having a good head on her shoulders and being a hard worker, shy Eilis Lacey has had no opportunities in life in her hometown of Enniscorthy, Ireland, especially ending up working a dead end job as a clerk in demanding and disagreeable Miss Kelly's grocery store. Realizing Eilis' situation, her caring sister, Rose Lacey, makes arrangements with Father Flood in Brooklyn for Rose to immigrate there, he who will arrange a job for her as a clerk in a department store and to live in Mrs. Kehoe's boarding house, as such being immersed within the Irish immigrant population. Rose's actions are despite realizing that she will end up being the sole caregiver for her and Eilis' mother. Despite Father Flood's efforts, he doesn't realize just how homesick Eilis is in being away from her familiar settings, as depressive at it was. Father Flood decides to be more hands on with Eilis, including paying for her tuition to attend night school so that Eilis can expand beyond her clerk job to be come an accountant just like Rose. But arguably what breaks Eilis out of her homesickness is meeting a boy, plumber Tony, at an Irish dance, he who eventually admits that he proverbially crashed the dance in not being Irish, but rather Italian, his family name Fiorello. She discovers that Tony is kind, caring, thoughtful of her feelings, and has fallen in love with her. Eilis can admit to herself and finally to Tony that she too has fallen in love with him. As she finally starts to feel at home in Brooklyn, she is physically and emotionally pulled back to Enniscorthy in a change of situation, which tears her between Enniscorthy and her new life in Brooklyn with Tony, especially problematic as she has told no one in Enniscorthy about him.