In a small Irish town in the 1950s, Ellis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work. So when she is offered a job in America, it is clear she must go. Leaving her family, she forges a new life in Brooklyn -:days at the till of a large department store, night classes in Brooklyn College and Friday evenings dancing at the parish hall -:until she realises she has found a kind of happiness. But when tragic new summons her back to Ireland, she must choose between the opportunities of the new world and the security of the old.
