Achoimre
Fed up with the dreary round of life in Ballybeg, with his uncommunicative father and his humiliating job at his father's grocery shop, with his frustrated love for Kathy Doogan who married a richer, more successful young man and with the total absence of prospect and opportunity in his life at home, Gareth O'Donnell has accepted his aunt's invitation to come to Philadelphia. On the eve of his departure, despite the fantasies Gar entertains of life in America, all it take to stop him leaving would be one word of affection from his father or Kathy, or a word of genuine understanding from his friends.