A daughter narrates the story of her parents’ meeting and subsequent marriage: Tom, an emigrant from Ireland, meets his future wife while on business aboard a ship heading from Massachusetts to Ireland. Tom, 20 years her senior, courts her for 3 years, culminating in a marriage proposal and a ticket for her to return to the United States from Ireland. There, she is similarly courted by a man, Mr. Barrett, who frequents her father’s shop and who her parents disapprove of because he is a Protestant. She accepts Tom's proposal and flies back to the States, dashing “to the ground” the expectations of all the Irish-American women who pursue him. Years later, and after the birth of their daughter, she hates living America. This prompts her to return to her hometown in Ireland, where she learns that Mr. Barrett has drowned, discovered faced down in a ditch of water a foot deep. Much later, when the daughter completes her undergraduate education, Tom takes her to his hometown, Roscommon, where he tours the village as he reflects on his childhood. They happen upon an old and gnarled man who Tom grew up. Without disclosing his identity, Tom inquires about a number of acquaintances who the man says are now dead. A little deflated, Tom and his daughter continue down the road and approach a string of cottages. They stop in front of the cottages and Tom asks a woman standing out in front of one of the cottages about another of his old acquaintances, Rose Magarry. An old woman appears in the doorway and indicates that she is Rose Magarry. Still undisclosed, Tom remarks that a friend of his used to know her. Rose recognizes his face, but thinks that he must be a son of Tom's and not Tom himself. She invites Tom and his daughter in, but he declines and they head back down the road. The daughter asks why he didn’t disclose his identity to his old friends, and he remarks, “Why do you think?,” sullen by the life he had left behind all those years ago.