The novel follows the lives of 12[1]different young people in the small Irish town of Shancarrig, most of them graduates of the stone schoolhouse on the hill where they engraved their initials on a large copper beech tree.[2]Each chapter is told from the viewpoint of one of the characters, although the plot details often reappear in other chapters.[3]

Maura Brennan has no choice but to work after her schooling. She has a drunken father and so is happy to work as a live-in chamber maid in Ryan’s hotel. Nessa’s mother prefers that her daughter does not speak with Maura even though they went to the same school. Maura falls in love with the barman Gerry O’Sullivan and becomes pregnant. They marry, but the child is born withDown syndromeand Gerry abandons Maura to face it alone. She then works for the Darcys who have opened a new shop in the village. She solves the mystery of Gloria’s missing jewels and ends up owning them.

Leo Murphy is the last child still at home. She lives with her injured soldier father and mother. Her teenage life is caught in the tangle her mother has made and she thinks she can never be normal again. She finds love, which helps her to break down the walls she made for herself.

Foxy Dunne from the slums never gives up. He works his way up in life and becomes a builder. He helps Leo forget her miseries and leave them behind.