Summary: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Com­menc­ing on a warm day in 1912, amid the mod­est dwellings of Williams­burg, Brook­lyn, a resilient Tree of Heav­en stands tall. Young Fran­cie Nolan, aged 11, and her sib­ling engage in col­lect­ing odds and ends in hopes of earn­ing a few coins. Despite their lim­it­ed means, Fran­cie cher­ish­es her envi­ron­ment and fam­i­ly dear­ly. While her father, John­ny Nolan, an indi­vid­ual of Irish descent, con­tributes to their mod­est income through singing and wait­ing, the pri­ma­ry care­tak­er role falls upon her moth­er, Katie, who toils as a jan­i­tor instead of rent. The nar­ra­tive then ven­tures back to 1900 when Katie and John­ny’s fates inter­twined, lead­ing to swift courtship and mar­riage with­in half a year. Nev­er­the­less, their chal­lenges mount as Katie con­ceives, strain­ing the fam­i­ly’s finances and John­ny’s reli­a­bil­i­ty as a provider. Amidst their strug­gles, they find solace in their new abode on Lorimer Street. As Fran­cie and Nee­ley com­mence school­ing, Fran­cie grap­ples with the harsh real­i­ties of her local school. Yet, her resolve, cou­pled with her father’s encour­age­ment, pro­pels her to a bet­ter edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion devoid of prejudice.

As the sib­lings mature, they rel­ish in sim­ple joys and rit­u­als. Nonethe­less, life grad­u­al­ly erodes Fran­cie’s inno­cence through try­ing inci­dents, includ­ing a dis­tress­ing encounter with a preda­to­ry indi­vid­ual and the bleak tra­di­tion of tree-toss­ing dur­ing the hol­i­days. She also comes face to face with her father’s alco­holism, cul­mi­nat­ing in his pass­ing. This piv­otal event sparks a rebel­lious streak in Fran­cie, prompt­ing her to scru­ti­nize her beliefs and prin­ci­ples. Despite the upheavals, Fran­cie’s com­pas­sion­ate spir­it endures, exem­pli­fied in her car­ing for her expec­tant moth­er. The tale con­cludes as Fran­cie and Nee­ley join the work­force, aid­ing their moth­er and the newest addi­tion to the fam­i­ly, Lau­rie. The onset of World War I, bud­ding romance, and impend­ing mat­ri­mo­ny for Katie mark trans­for­ma­tive junc­tures in Fran­cie’s jour­ney. As she pre­pares for col­lege, the indomitable Tree of Heav­en per­sists, sym­bol­iz­ing the unwa­ver­ing resilience of the Nolans.

Chapter 1

In the precincts of Williams­burg, Brook­lyn, thrives the Tree of Heav­en, a famil­iar sight in locales occu­pied by the less priv­i­leged. Fran­cie, an eleven-year-old, counts one of these trees in her yard. On week­ends, she and her sib­ling scav­enge and trade scrap mate­ri­als with Car­ney, a neigh­bor­ing scrap deal­er. Fran­cie des­ig­nat­ed the envoy due to Car­ney’s fond­ness for girls, is reward­ed with an extra penny—the ‘pinch­ing penny’—if she with­stands his cheek pinch with­out a flinch. Their earn­ings are divid­ed, save for the ‘pinch­ing pen­ny’ reserved by Fran­cie. Sub­se­quent­ly, they vis­it Cheap Char­lie’s, a pen­ny can­dy empo­ri­um where boys tra­di­tion­al­ly fre­quent. Demon­strat­ing respect for this unspo­ken norm, Fran­cie refrains from enter­ing and instead pro­cures treats from the gen­er­al store, pon­der­ing the fecun­di­ty of Jew­ish and Irish women. Upon Katie’s return from a demand­ing week, Fran­cie is dis­patched to pro­cure pro­vi­sions. A petite, charm­ing fig­ure, Katie’s hus­band’s bat­tle with alco­holism is allud­ed to. Home­bound, they savor a cof­fee repast, Katie sanc­tion­ing Fran­cie’s ‘right’ to squan­der, under­scor­ing the impor­tance for the less for­tu­nate to pos­sess such priv­i­lege. Post-meal, in pur­suit of bread at Losher’s—known for dis­pens­ing stale loaves to the destitute—Francie’s seren­i­ty is rat­tled by the sight of elder­ly, grotesque feet and lat­er, an infan­t’s foot. Defy­ing the boys’ cen­sure, Fran­cie tails Nee­ley and her friends to a base­ball match, par­tak­ing in teas­ing inci­dents that draw atten­tion. Her sojourn cul­mi­nates at the library, await­ing the resump­tion of the librar­i­an’s duties.

Chapter 2

Embrac­ing the dilap­i­dat­ed library, Fran­cie endeav­ors to peruse its lit­er­ary offer­ings in alpha­bet­i­cal sequence. Cur­rent­ly engrossed in authors under ‘B,’ she indulges in a librar­i­an-rec­om­mend­ed devi­a­tion each Sat­ur­day. Respect­ing the librar­i­an’s per­func­to­ry demeanor towards chil­dren, she bor­rows “If I Were King” by McCarthy and anoth­er tome by an author named Brown. Set­tled on the fire escape with refresh­ments, Fran­cie rel­ish­es her soli­tude, thank­ful for the absence of a mor­bid play­mate. Amid her lit­er­ary rever­ie, she observes the neigh­bor­hood’s inter­ac­tions, includ­ing Frank’s arrival with Mr. Fraber’s adver­tise­ment wag­on, drawn by the steed Bob. A famil­iar neigh­bor­hood pres­ence, Frank’s inter­ac­tion with the amorous Flossie ends in rejec­tion, stir­ring Fran­cie’s empa­thy as she eval­u­ates failed amorous pur­suits amidst roman­tic tri­umphs in her kinfolk.

Chapter 3

John­ny Nolan, Fran­cie’s pater­nal fig­ure, returns ser­e­nad­ing ‘Mol­ly Mal­one,’ his pre­ferred melody. Receiv­ing Fran­cie’s min­is­tra­tions for his impend­ing gig, John­ny extols the virtues of the Union label, empha­siz­ing its sig­nif­i­cance to Katie. Fond rec­ol­lec­tions of a Union Head­quar­ters vis­it resur­face, illus­trat­ing John­ny’s affa­ble nature amidst whis­pered con­cerns regard­ing his alco­hol con­sump­tion. Despite this, John­ny’s pop­u­lar­i­ty and mel­liflu­ous voice ren­der him endear­ing, shield­ed from his chil­dren’s soci­etal-enforced shame. With­in their abode, John­ny dis­cuss­es his job­less­ness and bur­geon­ing fam­i­ly, evok­ing a gamut of emo­tions in Fran­cie. Acknowl­edg­ing Katie’s com­mend­able char­ac­ter yet ques­tion­ing her pref­er­en­tial regard towards John­ny, who affec­tion­ate­ly dubs Fran­cie ‘Pri­ma Don­na’ for her infan­tile wails rem­i­nis­cent of an opera singer. Dis­patched to fetch a dicky and paper col­lar for his for­mal attire, John­ny exudes a youth­ful Irish charm but car­ries the bur­dens of a man encum­bered with addi­tion­al responsibilities.

poor chil­dren and a spouse who cleans floors. While accom­pa­ny­ing him to the trol­ley, Fran­cie appre­ci­ates his good looks.

Chapter 4

Fran­cie goes to see Flossie Gad­dis to view her attire for the upcom­ing dance. Flossie, who earns her keep by turn­ing gloves inside out at a fac­to­ry, looks after her ail­ing moth­er and broth­er, Hen­ny. Even though Hen­ny is very sick with con­sump­tion, Fran­cie fails to notice it. Mrs. Gad­dis advis­es Fran­cie to assure Hen­ny that he appears healthy, despite his bleak view on his well-being. After being left alone, Hen­ny is over­come by fits of cough­ing and weep­ing. Flossie’s week­ly rou­tine cen­ters on her glove work, craft­ing out­fits and car­ing for Frank. Her wardrobe is a mix of items from her cre­ations, each ensem­ble con­ceal­ing a burn mark on her arm from a child­hood mishap. Fran­cie is intrigued by the abun­dance in her clos­et, reflect­ing the affec­tion less for­tu­nate indi­vid­u­als have for “vast quan­ti­ties of items.” As the chap­ter con­cludes, Fran­cie envi­sions a haunt­ing scene in the closet—a skele­ton peek­ing out from the fes­tive cos­tumes, sym­bol­iz­ing Hen­ny’s impend­ing fate.

Chapter 5

After a trip to the movies, Katie Nolan returns with Aunt Sis­sy, who is great­ly admired by Fran­cie for her empa­thet­ic nature toward young girls. Aunt Sis­sy works at a rub­ber fac­to­ry, where the pri­ma­ry out­put is con­doms mar­ket­ed dis­creet­ly as toys. Sis­sy’s hus­band is employed at a pulp mag­a­zine com­pa­ny, giv­ing Fran­cie access to read­ing mate­ri­als that she lat­er sells at a reduced price. Fran­cie recounts to her moth­er an unset­tling encounter with an elder­ly man’s feet, which her moth­er brush­es off, sug­gest­ing that aging is inevitable and they should pre­pare for it. Lat­er, the moth­er-daugh­ter pair strate­gizes on uti­liz­ing their stale bread for the week, with Sun­day’s din­ner being a spe­cial treat of fried meat. The sto­ry also men­tions Fran­cie’s reg­u­lar pur­chase of a sub­stan­tial Jew­ish pick­le from a near­by store, referred to as a “ ‘pen­ny shee­ny pick­le’ ”. Unaware of the deroga­to­ry con­no­ta­tion of “shee­ny,” Fran­cie inad­ver­tent­ly offends the Jew­ish store own­er every time.

Chapter 6

Fran­cie and Nee­ley set out to buy the week­end’s meat sup­plies, vis­it­ing Has­sler’s and Wern­er’s shops per their moth­er, Katie Nolan’s spe­cif­ic pref­er­ences. Fran­cie has been giv­en detailed instruc­tions on ensur­ing the meat’s fresh­ness, much to the annoy­ance of the butch­er at Wern­er’s. She adds veg­eta­bles to their shop­ping list for the soup. Fol­low­ing din­ner, Fran­cie goes with her friend Maudie Dono­van for con­fes­sion, where she is unset­tled by Maudie’s aunts’ occu­pa­tion of mak­ing shrouds and Maudie’s rel­a­tive­ly minor trans­gres­sions. She bids Maudie farewell, promis­ing to stay in touch. When Fran­cie returns home, she finds her Aunt Evy and Uncle Flittman vis­it­ing. Evy, resem­bling her moth­er and pos­sess­ing a live­ly wit, is a favorite of Fran­cie’s. Uncle Flittman enter­tains them with his gui­tar play­ing, but lat­er por­trays him­self as a fail­ure, recount­ing a humil­i­at­ing anec­dote involv­ing his horse, Drum­mer. He bemoans that Evy no longer loves him, but she evades his remarks, sug­gest­ing it’s time they depart.

Chapter 7

Twelve years ear­li­er in Brook­lyn, John­ny Nolan and Katie Rom­me­ly first met. At the time, Katie worked at the Cas­tle Braid fac­to­ry along­side her close friend, Hildy O’Dair, who was roman­ti­cal­ly involved with John­ny. One evening, John­ny intro­duced a friend to Katie for a dou­ble date. Despite her ini­tial dis­like of John­ny’s friend, his danc­ing prowess catch­es her eye. After a dance togeth­er, she resolves to ded­i­cate her life to him, despite the poten­tial fol­ly in her deci­sion. They mar­ried on the first day of 1901, just four months into their acquain­tance. Thomas Rom­me­ly, Katie’s stern father, har­bored a last­ing ani­mos­i­ty towards her for mar­ry­ing John­ny. As Aus­tri­an immi­grants, the Rom­melys only spoke Ger­man, though the girls were for­bid­den to use any­thing but Eng­lish at home to avoid his sever­i­ty. Katie’s moth­er, Mary Rom­me­ly, was a devout, super­sti­tious Catholic who, being illit­er­ate, believed her hus­band to be the dev­il. Mary’s gen­tle, sooth­ing voice was inher­it­ed by her daugh­ters and grand­daugh­ter Fran­cie. Sis­sy, the eldest child of Thomas and Mary, missed out on school­ing due to Mary’s late dis­cov­ery of Amer­i­ca’s free edu­ca­tion sys­tem. She was a pas­sion­ate girl who wed a fire­man named Jim (whom she always called John) at a young age. After four still­born births, she blamed Jim, remar­ried with­out divorc­ing, and expe­ri­enced four more still­births. Despite her tragedies, she worked at a rub­ber fac­to­ry, had numer­ous suit­ors, and wed a third man named John from a mag­a­zine com­pa­ny. Her affec­tion for chil­dren grew with each loss. Eliza, the sec­ond daugh­ter, a plain and pas­sive indi­vid­ual, chose to become a nun and adopt­ed the name Sis­ter Ursu­la. She also devel­oped facial hair. Evy, the youngest, mar­ried Willie Flittman ear­ly on and bore three chil­dren. She pur­sued ele­gance and wished for her off­spring to inher­it their father’s musi­cal tal­ent, halt­ing her daugh­ter’s vio­lin lessons when the instruc­tor request­ed she remove her footwear dur­ing prac­tice. Evy had a knack for mim­ic­ry, par­tic­u­lar­ly of her husband.

Chapter 8

The pre­ced­ing por­tion focused on the tena­cious Rom­me­ly women, while this seg­ment presents the some­what frail yet tal­ent­ed men of the Nolan fam­i­ly. Ruthie and Mick­ey Nolan, Irish immi­grants, had four sons—Andy, Georgie, Frankie, and John­ny. The boys, all charm­ing, impec­ca­bly dressed singers, trag­i­cal­ly passed away before reach­ing 35. Only John­ny fathers off­spring. Andy falls ill and pass­es away before mar­ry­ing his beloved Fran­cie Melaney, leav­ing behind a lux­u­ri­ous pil­low bought by his broth­ers. The remain­ing Nolan sons vow to care for their moth­er; how­ev­er, with­in six months, John­ny mar­ries Katie. The pil­low becomes a gift to Katie and is lat­er used dur­ing times of sick­ness. Frankie meets his end in a pecu­liar alco­hol-relat­ed inci­dent, while Georgie dies at the young age of twen­ty-eight. Fran­cie Nolan embod­ies char­ac­ter­is­tics of both Nolan and Rom­me­ly ances­try, yet she also pos­sess­es dis­tinct traits shaped by her per­son­al encoun­ters and fer­vor for reading.

Chapter 9

John­ny and Katie, new­ly­weds in Brook­lyn, toil night shifts as school jan­i­tors and trea­sure their inti­mate moments. How­ev­er, joy trans­forms into appre­hen­sion when Katie becomes preg­nant. On a win­ter night when Katie goes into labor, John­ny departs in a pan­ic to seek solace with his fam­i­ly. In his absence, he miss­es both his daugh­ter’s birth and his work shift. Their daugh­ter, Fran­cie, is born with a caul, a sign of future great­ness. Upon return­ing to Katie with avo­ca­dos as gifts, John­ny is over­whelmed by fear and sad­ness. He con­ceals the fact that his absence cost him his job. Wit­ness­ing John­ny’s dis­tress, Katie feels pro­found empa­thy. The cou­ple names their girl Fran­cie, fol­low­ing the betrothed of John­ny’s sib­ling Andy. Katie acquires guid­ance from Mary Rom­me­ly, who advis­es her to recite dai­ly to Fran­cie from Shake­speare and the Protes­tant Bible. She also coun­sels Katie to fos­ter Fran­cie’s cre­ativ­i­ty and to set aside mon­ey for even­tu­al land pos­ses­sion, a tac­tic she believes will secure a supe­ri­or life for future gen­er­a­tions. Sis­sy, Katie’s rel­a­tive, comes by bear­ing food and presents. She begins the rec­om­mend­ed sav­ings bank for Katie, pur­chas­es a com­pi­la­tion of Shake­speare’s works from the library, and filch­es a Protes­tant Bible from the hotel where she’s in asso­ci­a­tion with her cur­rent sweetheart.

Chapter 10

Fran­cie Nolan kicks off her exis­tence as a del­i­cate and ail­ing baby. Her mom, Katie Nolan, is informed by a deceit­ful mid­wife that a curse caused her nurs­ing abil­i­ty to halt when Fran­cie was just three months old. Nonethe­less, Sis­sy imparts to Katie that she’s actu­al­ly with the child again. This news trou­bles John­ny even more, mark­ing the com­mence­ment of his pro­tract­ed decline. The mid­wife offers Katie an abor­tion, but she declines. Despite her neigh­bors’ com­ments about Fran­cie’s frail health, Katie remains res­olute, liken­ing Fran­cie to the resilient Tree of Heav­en. Upon Nee­ley’s birth, Katie uncov­ers her deep­er affec­tion for him over Fran­cie, lead­ing her to tough­en. This trans­for­ma­tion also for­ti­fies Fran­cie. The nar­ra­tor observes that the cou­ple’s des­tiny was pre­de­ter­mined from the out­set due to their pover­ty and the bur­den of two off­spring. The dif­fer­en­tia­tor is John­ny’s embrace of his fate, where­as Katie oppos­es it.

Chapter 11

On his twen­ty-first birth­day, John­ny spends three days in an alco­hol-induced stu­por. His wife, Katie, con­fines him in their bed­room but is even­tu­al­ly moved by his anguished pleas to sum­mon Sis­sy’s assis­tance. Sis­sy man­ages to calm John­ny by cradling him like a child and allow­ing him small quan­ti­ties of whiskey through­out the night. The author remarks that Sis­sy’s pri­ma­ry short­com­ings are her exces­sive fond­ness and mater­nal instincts, often extend­ing her love and care to oth­ers with­out expect­ing any­thing in return. After spend­ing the night with John­ny, Sis­sy assures Katie that there’s noth­ing roman­tic between them and coun­sels her against bad­ger­ing John­ny. She fur­ther enlight­ens Katie that every­one has an imper­fec­tion, and John­ny’s is his drink­ing dilem­ma, which Katie needs to acknowl­edge. Katie con­tem­plates Sis­sy’s benev­o­lence towards every­one, despite soci­ety’s cri­tique of her lib­er­tine lifestyle.

Chapter 12

Fol­low­ing John­ny’s alco­hol-fueled ram­page, Katie resolves to relo­cate the fam­i­ly. She locates a rent-free abode in exchange for her clean­ing ser­vices. The fam­i­ly’s scarce pos­ses­sions are moved to the nov­el res­i­dence, with Katie uti­liz­ing a dol­lar from their sav­ings to remu­ner­ate the trans­porter. She secures their sav­ings in her new cup­board. Katie’s moth­er, Mary Rom­me­ly, bless­es their new abode with holy water, which results in a com­i­cal mishap when Fran­cie spills it. Their new dwelling is sit­u­at­ed on Lorimer Street, Brook­lyn. The nar­ra­tive scru­ti­nizes the ear­ly mar­i­tal life of Katie and John­ny, dis­play­ing their indi­vid­ual reac­tions to dif­fi­cul­ties. Katie eschews depend­ing on John­ny for income after Nee­ley’s birth and becomes pro­gres­sive­ly res­olute. John­ny, how­ev­er, with­draws from real­i­ty, becom­ing less capa­ble of pro­vid­ing and work­ing spo­rad­i­cal­ly as a singing wait­er. John­ny’s char­ac­ter does­n’t under­go sig­nif­i­cant change through­out the nar­ra­tive. His pre­ma­ture demise is fore­shad­owed by the nar­ra­tor, pre­dict­ing he won’t sur­pass 35, akin to his sib­lings. Sis­sy and Katie’s dis­cus­sion in a pri­or chap­ter rein­forces John­ny’s unvary­ing nature, under­scor­ing his inevitable drink­ing habits. Despite Katie’s dis­sat­is­fac­tion with John­ny’s drink­ing, she nev­er fore­sees any alter­ation in him. Nee­ley’s birth mere­ly accen­tu­ates John­ny’s intrin­sic frail­ties. Ulti­mate­ly, both Katie and John­ny seem to become more entrenched in their respec­tive characteristics.

Chapter 13

The Nolans are con­tent in their recent abode, but over time Katie com­mences to shoul­der more of the care­giv­ing duties than John­ny. She per­se­veres in recit­ing a page of the Bible and Shake­speare each night, albeit the con­tent per­plex­es her and her chil­dren. Fran­cie grap­ples to forge friend­ships, pos­si­bly due to her dis­tinc­tive lex­i­con sourced from Shake­speare and the Bible. Yet, she delights in her local street life. The nar­ra­tor paints a pic­ture of the melod­ic chil­dren’s pas­times that occu­py the Brook­lyn streets. Fran­cie par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­ish­es a game dubbed Pot­sy, where a tin can serves as a prop for hop­scotch, and is enam­ored with the street min­strels, par­tic­u­lar­ly the mon­key-bear­ing organ grinder. How­ev­er, Katie cau­tions Fran­cie about the haz­ards of these min­strels, alleg­ing they are Sicil­ian child abduc­tors, and dis­ap­proves of Fran­cie’s ambi­tion to one day turn into an organ grinder with a mon­key. Despite the music and dance that enlivens their neigh­bor­hood, the nar­ra­tor detects an under­ly­ing sor­row, appar­ent in the juve­nile off­spring com­pelled to fend for them­selves and the grown-ups inca­pable of enhanc­ing their cir­cum­stances in life.

Chapter 14

Due to a cou­ple of episodes trig­gered by Sis­sy, the Nolans are com­pelled to vacate their Lorimer Street res­i­dence. Sis­sy ini­tial­ly pro­cures a gleam­ing tri­cy­cle for Fran­cie and Nee­ley to ride on, pro­vok­ing the ire of a local moth­er who lays claim to it for her child. Despite her accu­sa­tions, a cap­ti­vat­ed police­man lets Sis­sy off the hook, engen­der­ing neigh­bor­hood chat­ter. In a sub­se­quent inci­dent, Sis­sy drops by the young­sters, bring­ing along a cig­ar box and tis­sue paper for an after­noon of craft­ing. Upon her depar­ture, she dis­tracts the kids with a box she pur­ports is loaded with cig­a­rettes. The chil­dren’s intrigue leads them to dis­cov­er con­doms inside, which they inno­cent­ly wield as bal­loons, caus­ing addi­tion­al embar­rass­ment for the fam­i­ly. Katie and Evy, scan­dal­ized by these occur­rences, resolve to bar Sis­sy from their res­i­dences. The Nolans then reset­tle in a fresh apart­ment on Grand Street in Williams­burg, occu­py­ing the top lev­el. Katie bar­gains with the movers, com­pen­sat­ing them $2 from the $8 sav­ings in their tin-can bank. Mean­while, John­ny and Fran­cie bond on the rooftop. Enchant­ed by the panora­ma of bridges and Man­hat­tan, Fran­cie seeks solace from John­ny after wit­ness­ing a dis­tress­ing scene involv­ing a lad trap­ping a pigeon. John­ny mus­es how he’s been wed for sev­en years and antic­i­pates this will be their ulti­mate residence.

Chapter 15

The Nolan fam­i­ly moves into a hum­ble apart­ment, com­pris­ing four rooms. Fran­cie val­ues the small joys, like the vista from the kitchen win­dow of a Tree of Heav­en in the tiny con­crete yard. The bath­tub, craft­ed from two wash­tubs, is uncom­fort­able, and the bed­rooms yield a filthy air­shaft, which reminds Fran­cie of Pur­ga­to­ry. She cher­ish­es the front room, espe­cial­ly after adorn­ing it. She has a soft spot for the piano left behind by the for­mer occu­pant, even though John­ny can only play a few chords. His music brings her to tears. They also chance upon a conch shell, which they dub “Toot­sy,” and it evokes mem­o­ries of the first time she glimpsed the ocean. Across the yard is the school where Fran­cie is. A young woman observes a girl clap­ping black­board dusters. Com­ing clos­er, the girl allows Fran­cie to han­dle the dusters before unkind­ly spit­ting in her face, tar­nish­ing Fran­cie’s once keen inter­est in black­board dusters.

Chapter 16

Urban young­sters, much like the sto­ry­tellers, com­pre­hend the impor­tance of local busi­ness­es in their vicin­i­ty. In Williams­burg, her place of res­i­dence, a pletho­ra of stores sur­round their apart­ment. The pawn­shop cap­ti­vates her the most, attract­ed to the shin­ing orbs sus­pend­ed high up. Among oth­ers are the bak­ery, Gol­len­der’s Paint Shop, and a pecu­liar estab­lish­ment owned by a cig­ar arti­san who spurns mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy, hand­craft­ing cig­ars illu­mi­nat­ed by a can­dle’s glow. A tea and cof­fee bou­tique, equipped with a siz­able grinder, stands out as well. How­ev­er, the Nolans favor grind­ing their cof­fee at home. Fran­cie finds the tea shop’s scales par­tic­u­lar­ly intrigu­ing. Also present is a laun­derette run by a Chi­nese gen­tle­man who laun­ders John­ny’s shirts. Fas­ci­nat­ed by his self-warm­ing iron, Fran­cie deems it a Chi­nese mys­tery, briefly envi­sion­ing her­self as Chinese.

Chapter 17

Katie strikes a bar­gain with their neigh­bor, Miss Lizzie Tyn­more, exchang­ing her house­keep­ing ser­vices for piano lessons. Dur­ing the ses­sion, Katie’s chil­dren, instruct­ed to observe qui­et­ly, are charmed by Miss Tyn­more’s hat adorned with a scar­let bird, hat­pins, and a rhyth­mic metronome. Fol­low­ing the les­son, Miss Tyn­more acknowl­edges Katie’s clever approach to edu­cat­ing her chil­dren, despite not entire­ly endors­ing it. Upon find­ing that Miss Tyn­more expects tea ser­vice post-les­son, Katie, lack­ing tea, offers cof­fee and a sweet roll instead. The sto­ry­teller dis­clos­es that Miss Tyn­more depends on the tea post-les­son due to lim­it­ed funds for sus­te­nance. Intrigued by Fran­cie’s mus­ings dur­ing her lengthy curb sits, Miss Tyn­more pre­dicts a future in writ­ing for Fran­cie. To out­shine Katie, John­ny pro­pos­es an exchange of his handy­man exper­tise for voice lessons for Fran­cie from Miss Tyn­more’s sib­ling. His attempt to fix a mal­func­tion­ing sash cord leads to a shat­tered win­dow, com­pelling Katie to work addi­tion­al hours with the Tyn­more sis­ters to make amends for the damage.

Chapter 18

Excit­ed about com­menc­ing school, Fran­cie must first under­go vaccination—a daunt­ing task for une­d­u­cat­ed and immi­grant fam­i­lies in Brook­lyn. Katie abstains from the chil­dren’s vac­ci­na­tion ordeal due to her own appre­hen­sion. To calm the fear­ful Nee­ley, Fran­cie makes mud pies, result­ing in both being cov­ered in soil on arrival for their vac­ci­na­tions. The doc­tor and nurse make dis­parag­ing remarks about the hygiene of less afflu­ent fam­i­lies, leav­ing Fran­cie pro­found­ly embar­rassed. She had hoped the nurse, com­ing from a sim­i­lar back­ground, would defend her, but she does­n’t. Reflect­ing on those who escape pover­ty, the sto­ry­teller notes they either for­get their roots or retain empa­thy for the less fortunate—the nurse chose the for­mer. Dis­tressed, Fran­cie implores the doc­tor to refrain from mak­ing sim­i­lar com­ments to Nee­ley and sur­pris­es him with her insight. Fol­low­ing the vac­ci­na­tion, Fran­cie’s arm gets infect­ed, instill­ing fear in her about scratch­ing it. Unable to sleep one night due to fear of per­ish­ing, John­ny allays her fears and tends to her arm, ban­dag­ing it with his shirt. That night, John­ny rebuffs Katie’s advances and remains awake in the darkness.

Chapter 19

Fran­cie’s ini­tial school encoun­ters fall short of her expec­ta­tions. Return­ing home with a bloody nose on her first day, she soon real­izes that her teacher, Miss Brig­gs, favors afflu­ent stu­dents, push­ing the less priv­i­leged to the rear. Rather than unit­ing against this bias, the dis­ad­van­taged chil­dren bick­er among them­selves. The school envi­ron­ment, designed for a third of its cur­rent capac­i­ty, is daunt­ing, with a most­ly stern fac­ul­ty since jovial teach­ers either wed or were dri­ven off by their harsh coun­ter­parts. Bul­ly­ing con­trols access to bath­rooms dur­ing breaks, and teach­ers deny requests for bath­room breaks dur­ing class­es, lead­ing stu­dents to sup­press their needs or face acci­dents. Despite the Nolan fam­i­ly’s iso­la­tion, Sis­sy’s desire to see Fran­cie and Nee­ley prompts her to vis­it the school­yard. One day, she treats Fran­cie to a soda, and Fran­cie admits, with embar­rass­ment, to wet­ting her­self. Sis­sy reas­sures her and ensures Fran­cie is allowed bath­room breaks, coerc­ing the teacher the next day, mas­querad­ing as Fran­cie’s moth­er with a police­man hus­band, and fab­ri­cat­ing a health con­di­tion for Fran­cie’s ben­e­fit. From then on, Fran­cie can use the bath­room when nec­es­sary. Despite her resis­tance towards Sis­sy, Katie soft­ens upon hear­ing of Sis­sy’s lat­est loss. Over­whelmed with guilt, she decides to wel­come Sis­sy back into their fold.

Chapter 20

When lice infes­ta­tions plague the school, affect­ed chil­dren face ridicule from peers. Katie, averse to ver­min or ail­ments, dili­gent­ly scrubs Fran­cie’s hair with kerosene dai­ly, elim­i­nat­ing lice but leav­ing a pun­gent odor that repels oth­ers. Amid a mumps out­break, Katie resorts to gar­lic as a pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sure for her chil­dren, suc­cess­ful­ly shield­ing Fran­cie and Nee­ley from both lice and ill­ness. Unaf­fect­ed by class­mates’ dis­dain, Fran­cie is accus­tomed to solitude.

Chapter 21

Despite the harsh set­ting, Fran­cie finds solace in school, large­ly due to two peri­od­ic instruc­tors: Mr. Mor­ton, the musi­cal men­tor, and Miss Bern­stone, the art guide. Fac­ul­ty attire notably improves on Mr. Mor­ton’s vis­it days. He exudes enthu­si­asm in ren­der­ing music edu­ca­tion enjoy­able and straight­for­ward. Jeal­ousies towards Miss Bern­stone exist among teach­ers, acknowl­edg­ing her beau­ty and lack of soli­tude. These two instruc­tors exhib­it a spe­cial fond­ness for the neglect­ed, dis­ad­van­taged chil­dren over the priv­i­leged ones. Accord­ing to the nar­ra­tor, if all edu­ca­tors mir­rored them, the school would be paradise.

Chapter 22

Fran­cie acquires the abil­i­ty to deci­pher writ­ten words, trans­form­ing sounds into vis­i­ble script. Pledg­ing to read a book dai­ly hence­forth, she imbues arith­metic with amuse­ment by per­son­i­fy­ing num­bers with­in a fam­i­ly frame­work. Eas­i­er cal­cu­la­tions become ami­able rel­a­tives, while mul­ti-dig­it num­bers inter­act as fam­i­ly mem­bers, giv­ing arith­metic a human touch.

Chapter 23

Fran­cie explores a delight­ful dis­trict devoid of cramped build­ings dur­ing a relax­ing autumn stroll. She stum­bles upon an ancient brick school nes­tled next to a field, imme­di­ate­ly yearn­ing to enroll there. Patient­ly, she awaits her father’s arrival to broach the sub­ject, and he promis­es to accom­pa­ny her to the school the fol­low­ing day. This fresh local­i­ty accom­mo­dates descen­dants of fam­i­lies who have resided in Amer­i­ca for five to six gen­er­a­tions, in stark con­trast to Fran­cie’s com­mu­ni­ty where most inhab­i­tants lack U.S. her­itage. In a class con­ver­sa­tion on lin­eage, Fran­cie sur­pris­es every­one by being the sole pupil with par­ents not orig­i­nat­ing from for­eign shores.

Chapter 24

Fran­cie employs hol­i­days as time mark­ers, favor­ing Inde­pen­dence Day. She also rel­ish­es Elec­tion Day in Brook­lyn, known for the his­toric Oys­ter House, a piv­otal polit­i­cal site where young­sters chant about a fac­tion named “Tam­many,” linked to the city’s polit­i­cal domain. Her par­ents, John­ny and Katie, fre­quent­ly clash over polit­i­cal mat­ters. John­ny aligns with the Democ­rats, while Katie, although polit­i­cal­ly dis­in­ter­est­ed, cri­tiques the par­ty. She believes that women will elim­i­nate cor­rupt politi­cians once grant­ed vot­ing rights. John­ny con­tends that she will vote as he does when the oppor­tu­ni­ty aris­es. The Mat­tie Mahoney Asso­ci­a­tion, a Demo­c­ra­t­ic group, arranges excur­sions geared towards engag­ing future vot­ers, encom­pass­ing women and chil­dren. On one such out­ing, Fran­cie learns about gam­bling, los­ing a hot­dog, and rid­ing tick­ets in a game of mar­bles. Sergeant McShane, observ­ing her dis­tress, grants her extra items and also notices Katie’s beau­ty. Katie rec­i­p­ro­cates the atten­tion, con­ceal­ing her toil-worn hands with gloves. We learn that McShane wed a trou­bled preg­nant woman out of com­pas­sion, who now grap­ples with poor health after four­teen preg­nan­cies. Katie vocal­izes her desire for the wom­an’s demise so McShane can remar­ry, aston­ish­ing John­ny with her can­did­ness. Despite Mat­tie Mahoney’s ubiq­ui­tous pres­ence, Fran­cie nev­er encoun­ters the man him­self. Even though the fes­tiv­i­ties sur­round­ing the elec­tions typ­i­cal­ly con­clude in Novem­ber, Katie upholds the tra­di­tion of attend­ing Ladies’ Day at the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Head­quar­ters every January.

Chapter 25

The writer depicts John­ny as sen­ti­men­tal and jol­ly when sober, but intro­spec­tive when intox­i­cat­ed. Post his drink­ing sprees, he har­bors a fer­vent wish to be a bet­ter father. He shares Mary Rom­me­ly’s aspi­ra­tion for his chil­dren to acquire a supe­ri­or edu­ca­tion com­pared to his. Occa­sion­al­ly, he takes them to Bush­wick Avenue, an ancient Brook­lyn thor­ough­fare, to impart lessons in civics, geog­ra­phy, and soci­ol­o­gy. On one such occa­sion, he and Fran­cie dis­cuss car­riages, with John­ny explain­ing that any­one in Amer­i­ca can par­take in a car­riage ride pro­vid­ed they pos­sess the req­ui­site funds. Fran­cie is mys­ti­fied as to why the nation is deemed “free” when pay­ment is manda­to­ry. John­ny ratio­nal­izes this as a mea­sure to pre­vent Social­ism. Before depart­ing, he escorts Fran­cie to view the may­or’s res­i­dence. Fran­cie rem­i­nisces about anoth­er inci­dent on the same avenue, where a pro­ces­sion adorned with numer­ous ros­es pays homage to Dr. Cook, a fel­low Brook­lyn dweller who voy­aged to the North Pole and plant­ed the Amer­i­can flag.

Chapter 26

The nar­ra­tive pro­gress­es with the cadence of hol­i­days, shift­ing to Thanks­giv­ing in Brook­lyn. Dur­ing this peri­od, young­sters don cos­tumes and request good­ies from local stores, par­tic­u­lar­ly those reliant on their busi­ness. For this par­tic­u­lar Thanks­giv­ing, Fran­cie adorns a Chi­na­man’s mask. Fol­low­ing a school inci­dent, Fran­cie delves into writ­ing. A class­mate brings a minia­ture pump­kin pie to cel­e­brate the hol­i­day. The teacher inquires who will deliv­er it to a needy fam­i­ly, prompt­ing Fran­cie to vol­un­teer. How­ev­er, Fran­cie con­sumes the pie her­self, evi­dent when her exu­ber­ance betrays her the fol­low­ing day. Instead of rep­ri­mand­ing her, the teacher prais­es her for “hav­ing an imag­i­na­tion” and delin­eates the dis­tinc­tion between sto­ry­telling and deceit. Katie, Fran­cie’s moth­er, has been irked by Fran­cie’s fab­ri­ca­tions; hence, Fran­cie now nar­rates events as they occur, reserv­ing her cre­ativ­i­ty for her compositions.

Chapter 27

The chil­dren of Brook­lyn rev­el in the fes­tive spir­it of Christ­mas. On a spe­cif­ic year, Fran­cie and her broth­er Nee­ley par­take in the cus­tom­ary tree tra­di­tion. The local tree ven­dor dis­trib­utes trees on Christ­mas Eve, which recip­i­ents must catch and keep upright. The largest trees are tossed first, and Fran­cie bold­ly declares their intent to snag one. Though hes­i­tant, the tree ven­dor even­tu­al­ly hurls a tree towards them, which the sib­lings suc­cess­ful­ly inter­cept and trans­port home—a grand ten-foot ever­green. This episode spurs their moth­er, Katie, to inten­si­fy her resolve to secure their aca­d­e­m­ic advance­ment and devise means to uplift them from their harsh cir­cum­stances. On the joy­ous occa­sion of Christ­mas, the fam­i­ly exchanges mod­est gifts. Fran­cie is crest­fall­en when Katie dis­plays more enthu­si­asm for Nee­ley’s pres­ence. The tale unfolds of Fran­cie’s sec­ond fib, emerg­ing at a Christ­mas char­i­ty event for under­priv­i­leged chil­dren. A well-to-do girl, Mary, offers a doll for dona­tion, aspir­ing for it to reach a needy child also chris­tened Mary. The impov­er­ished Marys, unwill­ing to reveal their plight, main­tain silence. To pre­vent the doll from going unclaimed, Fran­cie fic­ti­tious­ly assumes the name Mary. Sub­se­quent­ly, she dis­cov­ers that Mary Frances Nolan is her full name, assuag­ing her guilt.

Chapter 28

As Fran­cie matures, time appears to has­ten. The once-abstract notion of Hen­ny’s demise abrupt­ly mate­ri­al­izes, serv­ing as a poignant mark­er of her matur­ing per­cep­tion. Grow­ing up also entails dimin­ish­ing enthu­si­asm for once-enjoyed dai­ly plea­sures. She begins com­pre­hend­ing peo­ple’s per­cep­tions of her father, and her moth­er’s whim­si­cal diver­sion to dis­tract them from hunger los­es its allure. She adopts a crit­i­cal stance towards fab­ri­cat­ed nar­ra­tives in the­atre. This awak­en­ing nudges her to final­ize a play with an unsat­is­fac­to­ry denoue­ment, paving the way for her resolve to become a dramatist.

Chapter 29

On a par­tic­u­lar day, John­ny deter­mines that his off­spring need expo­sure to the sea, lead­ing them, along with neigh­bor­hood tod­dler Lit­tle Tilly, on a fish­ing escapade. Lit­tle Tilly, the younger sib­ling of Gussie, is local­ly renowned for his ret­i­cence to wean off his moth­er’s breast, a habit she fear­ful­ly cur­tailed by paint­ing her breast with a men­ac­ing car­i­ca­ture. Upon reach­ing the shore, John­ny par­takes in mul­ti­ple liba­tions before attempt­ing to board the boat, only to stum­ble into the water due to ine­bri­a­tion, much to his kids’ amuse­ment, soak­ing his tuxe­do. Their fish­ing endeav­or yields no catch; more­over, they endure severe sun­burns and upset stom­achs from a sub­stan­tial mid­day meal. Lit­tle Tilly also top­ples into the water dur­ing their return jour­ney. The chil­dren’s trip back is marred by con­stant bouts of vom­it­ing. The fish John­ny pro­cures has turned ran­cid, leav­ing him dis­heart­ened, as the

The ocean was not as he had imag­ined from the bal­lads he sang.

Chapter 30

As a thir­teen-year-old, Fran­cie had her writ­ten work pub­lished in the school jour­nal, mark­ing her first appear­ance in print. Upon return­ing from buy­ing the mag­a­zine, she glimpses Joan­na, a local girl with an ille­git­i­mate child, on the street with her baby. Despite the baby’s charm and Joan­na’s atten­tive care, Fran­cie avoids rec­i­p­ro­cat­ing Joan­na’s smile, influ­enced by soci­etal con­ven­tions. Joan­na becomes the cen­ter of local gos­sip, lead­ing to ver­bal assaults and phys­i­cal harm. A thrown stone injures the baby, caus­ing Joan­na to seek refuge indoors. Touched by sym­pa­thy, Fran­cie leaves her cher­ished mag­a­zine in Joan­na’s baby car­riage as a gift. Sub­se­quent­ly, Fran­cie is over­whelmed and seeks soli­tude in the cel­lar, where she dis­cov­ers she has begun men­stru­at­ing. Katie advis­es her to “remem­ber Joan­na,” sug­gest­ing her emerg­ing poten­tial for moth­er­hood. This prompts Fran­cie to ques­tion the unkind­ness women exhib­it towards each other.

Chapter 31

Drum­mer, the horse owned by Uncle Willie Flittman, holds dis­dain for his own­er, often uri­nat­ing on him dur­ing baths. How­ev­er, Drum­mer adores Aunt Evy, Willie’s spouse, and Katie’s sib­ling. Drum­mer once inca­pac­i­tat­ed Willie by strik­ing him in the head. When Willie was hos­pi­tal­ized, Evy took on the task of learn­ing to dri­ve the horse and sub­sti­tut­ed for Willie on his milk deliv­ery route. This made her the first woman on the route, to earn approval from the men. She spoilt Drum­mer with var­i­ous treats. Upon Willie’s return, he was assigned a new horse, and Drum­mer was entrust­ed to a gen­tle young man. Nonethe­less, Drum­mer need­ed to see Evy daily.

Chapter 32

In Decem­ber, when she turned thir­teen, Fran­cie began a jour­nal. Almost a year lat­er, she is engrossed in read­ing it. The diary entries form the essence of the chap­ter. The major­i­ty of the entries revolve around Papa’s “ill­ness,” which is Katie’s way of describ­ing his alco­holism. Oth­er entries touch on the “North Pole” game, a light­heart­ed cop­ing mech­a­nism the Nolans use dur­ing food short­ages, pre­tend­ing to be Arc­tic explor­ers await­ing res­cue. The diary also unveils that Flossie Gad­dis and Frank are engaged, and Fran­cie is begin­ning to pon­der about intimacy.

Chapter 33

Fran­cie’s com­mu­ni­ty lacks the lan­guage to effec­tive­ly edu­cate their chil­dren about inti­ma­cy, includ­ing Katie’s moth­er. Despite this, Katie is ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing the best expla­na­tions she can to Fran­cie’s inquiries. The bru­tal mur­der of a young girl prompts dis­cus­sions among adults about sex­u­al vio­lence with their chil­dren. Inves­ti­ga­tor McShane detains the vic­tim’s broth­er as a ploy to lure the true cul­prit into a false sense of secu­ri­ty, prepar­ing to catch him off guard. Con­cerned for Fran­cie’s safe­ty, John­ny bor­rows a firearm from his asso­ciate Burt, a night­time watch­man whom John­ny occa­sion­al­ly sub­sti­tutes for. The com­mu­ni­ty grad­u­al­ly regains a sense of secu­ri­ty, but Katie remains vig­i­lant. She ensures Fran­cie returns home prompt­ly from school after her clean­ing job. One day, as Fran­cie opens her apart­ment door, she is attacked. Katie retrieves the firearm and inter­venes, shoot­ing the assailant in the stom­ach before he can cause fur­ther harm to Fran­cie. Katie then helps Fran­cie upstairs and dis­pos­es of the firearm in the wash­basin. Soon, law enforce­ment arrives and dis­cov­ers the unreg­is­tered firearm, result­ing in a penal­ty for John­ny. They con­firm that Katie’s shot did not prove fatal to the attack­er but antic­i­pate his prob­a­ble exe­cu­tion. A news reporter inac­cu­rate­ly reports the inci­dent, inad­ver­tent­ly shield­ing Katie from pub­lic scruti­ny. Impressed by Katie’s brav­ery, McShane offers her a reward, which she declines. He har­bors feel­ings for her secret­ly and con­tem­plates the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mar­ry­ing her one day.

Chapter 34

Sis­sy is eager to adopt a child after los­ing all her own, but her hus­band oppos­es adopt­ing anoth­er man’s child. Unbe­knownst to him, Sis­sy dis­cov­ers a preg­nant Sicil­ian girl, Lucia, who is mis­treat­ed and con­fined by her father. In the father’s absence, Sis­sy inter­venes, pledg­ing to care for the baby. She also tends to Lucia and devel­ops a rap­port with the fam­i­ly, nev­er encoun­ter­ing the father. Sis­sy’s hus­band, John, is bewil­dered and trou­bled when Sis­sy repeat­ed­ly insists she is preg­nant with­out show­ing signs. How­ev­er, when she presents a baby girl to him, she man­ages to pla­cate him with praise. Only Katie, John­ny, and Fran­cie are aware of the truth. John­ny begins to wor­ry that Katie might have deceived him. In response, Katie presents their chil­dren to John­ny one evening to reas­sure him of their par­ent­hood. Upon rec­og­niz­ing their resem­blance to him, John­ny is reas­sured. After Katie whis­pers some­thing to him pri­vate­ly, he leaves their res­i­dence in con­tem­pla­tive sorrow.

Chapter 35

At four­teen, Fran­cie and Nee­ley eager­ly antic­i­pate Christ­mas, rem­i­nisc­ing about past fes­tiv­i­ties. Recent­ly, John­ny has been exhibit­ing signs of intox­i­ca­tion with­out any alco­hol. Finances are tight, lead­ing them to have oat­meal for din­ner. John­ny returns home dis­traught and irra­tional, tear­ful­ly con­fess­ing his expul­sion from the Wait­ers’ Union. He weeps uncon­trol­lably at the kitchen table until Katie com­forts him, and he even­tu­al­ly drifts off to sleep.

Chapter 36

Three days after col­laps­ing on the street, John­ny pass­es away, as the chap­ter’s open­ing line dis­clos­es. McShane, who trans­port­ed him to the hos­pi­tal, accom­pa­nies Katie there. Fol­low­ing John­ny’s demise, Katie instructs her chil­dren not to grieve for him. An unscrupu­lous under­tak­er attempts to take advan­tage of Katie, demand­ing $175 from her $200 insur­ance pay­out. At the hos­pi­tal, Katie per­suades the doc­tor and a priest to omit alco­holism as the cause of death on John­ny’s death cer­tifi­cate, attribut­ing it sole­ly to pneu­mo­nia. Sub­se­quent­ly, she pur­chas­es mourn­ing attire for her­self and her chil­dren. The same under­tak­er returns, request­ing addi­tion­al funds for John­ny’s bur­ial plot or the “deed.” Rec­og­niz­ing the decep­tion, Katie with­draws her sav­ings from the tin-can bank with­out seal­ing it shut. She now owns the land, albeit a small par­cel. Flo­ral trib­utes pour in, a tes­ta­ment to John­ny’s pop­u­lar­i­ty. Dur­ing the funer­al, Katie advis­es Fran­cie and Nee­ley to view John­ny’s body to dis­pel rumors about his short­com­ings as a father. Both chil­dren, espe­cial­ly Fran­cie, main­tain that John­ny was a good father. John­ny’s ex-girl­friend, Hildy O’Dair, is incon­solably mourn­ing, while Katie remains tear­less. Find­ing solace in Hildy’s tears for John­ny, as she is unable to weep her­self. Post-funer­al, Katie sends Fran­cie to retrieve John­ny’s shav­ing mug from the bar­ber­shop as a keep­sake. Upon return­ing home, Katie breaks down in tears, with Sis­sy pro­vid­ing com­fort to pre­vent dis­tress to her unborn child.

Chapter 37

After the bur­ial cer­e­mo­ny, Katie encour­ages her chil­dren to take a walk. When they come across an adver­tise­ment for the “Sweet Singer,” the kids open­ly dis­play their sad­ness for the first time. Fran­cie express­es her anger towards God, caus­ing Nee­ley to feel uneasy, and admits to los­ing her faith. Upon return­ing home, Katie has pre­pared hot cocoa for them and, like her chil­dren, she too is shed­ding tears. As they delve into the Christ­mas sto­ry that evening, Katie reflects on whether John­ny gave up drink­ing to become a bet­ter man for their unborn child. In a rare show of affec­tion, she embraces her kids, assur­ing them that she will now ful­fill both the roles of moth­er and father.

Chapter 38

In antic­i­pa­tion of her baby due in May, Katie’s health dete­ri­o­rates, unable to man­age her usu­al work­load. Fac­ing finan­cial strug­gles, a fam­i­ly friend and insur­ance agent sug­gest cash­ing out her chil­dren’s poli­cies for some mon­ey. Despite her sis­ters rec­om­mend­ing that Fran­cie should start work­ing, Katie is adamant about Fran­cie com­plet­ing her edu­ca­tion. Seek­ing help from God, the Vir­gin Mary, and final­ly John­ny, Katie is met with silence. Mean­while, McGar­ri­ty, the own­er of John­ny’s favorite pub, deeply miss­es John­ny, often dream­ing through him, yearn­ing for a fam­i­ly like his. His wife Mae, a pub own­er, is not one for deep con­ver­sa­tions. Hop­ing to recap­ture the talks he shared with John­ny, McGar­ri­ty offers after-school jobs to Fran­cie and Nee­ley. Although the chil­dren work dili­gent­ly, they do not engage with him as he had hoped. Katie and McGar­ri­ty have a lengthy con­ver­sa­tion rem­i­nisc­ing about the John­ny they both loved. Katie and Fran­cie vis­it Mary Rom­me­ly, now stay­ing with Sis­sy. Sis­sy has gained weight and no longer wears per­fume. On their way back, Fran­cie laughs for the first time since John­ny’s passing.

Chapter 39

Fol­low­ing their con­fir­ma­tion, Fran­cie adopts her moth­er’s name and endeav­ors to write a nov­el to show­case her abil­i­ty to write about cap­ti­vat­ing top­ics to her teacher. After John­ny’s death, her dark com­po­si­tions led to poor grades. Miss Gar­nder acknowl­edges Fran­cie’s writ­ing skills but advis­es her to focus on pos­i­tive, embell­ished sto­ries. She deems themes like pover­ty and alco­holism as unin­ter­est­ing and dis­taste­ful, even­tu­al­ly reject­ing Fran­cie’s play for the grad­u­a­tion event. She also sug­gests Fran­cie should dis­card her unfa­vor­able com­po­si­tions. In her nov­el, Fran­cie crafts a sto­ry of an afflu­ent girl resid­ing in a lux­u­ri­ous home and com­mand­ing her chefs. She dreams of receiv­ing praise from Miss Gar­nder for her nov­el. How­ev­er, as she con­tin­ues writ­ing, Fran­cie real­izes both her high­ly-rat­ed com­po­si­tions and her nov­el share a com­mon flaw: they are based on sub­jects she lacks knowl­edge about. Con­se­quent­ly, she choos­es to burn them all, keep­ing only the com­po­si­tions that fetched her low grades.

Chapter 40

Fran­cie attends to Katie in her final hours before child­birth. On the night Katie goes into labor, Fran­cie sends Nee­ley to fetch Evy, explain­ing to Katie that Nee­ley is bet­ter suit­ed to com­fort her. Katie shares her belief that men should not be present dur­ing births, hint­ing at her strug­gle to com­pre­hend John­ny’s absence. She con­fess­es to need­ing Fran­cie more than Nee­ley. Laden with guilt for nev­er read­ing Fran­cie’s writ­ings, Katie asks Fran­cie to recite Shake­speare to help her relax. Upon Evy’s arrival, she and Sis­sy request Fran­cie to leave the room, mak­ing her feel neglect­ed. Opt­ing not to sum­mon a mid­wife, they send Fran­cie on an errand for food just as the baby is about to be born, spar­ing her the har­row­ing sight of child­birth. Katie’s cries echo through the neigh­bor­hood, elic­it­ing empa­thet­ic pain among the women. Before Fran­cie, Katie records the birth of their newest fam­i­ly mem­ber, Annie Lau­rie (named after John­ny’s favorite song), in the fam­i­ly Bible.

Chapter 41

McGar­ri­ty decides to retain Fran­cie and Nee­ley on his staff post the recent birth, devi­at­ing from his ini­tial plan of let­ting them go. His bar buzzes with activ­i­ty as the world under­goes a trans­for­ma­tion. The pas­sage cap­tures snip­pets of con­ver­sa­tions occur­ring at the “poor man’s club,” the local tav­ern. Top­ics like the onset of pro­hi­bi­tion, the poten­tial for wom­en’s suf­frage, Pres­i­dent Wilson’s stance on war, the pop­u­lace’s will­ing­ness to fight if war erupts, and the rise of mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy are all sub­jects of discussion.

Chapter 42

Lau­rie’s birth coin­cides with the grad­u­a­tion night. Opt­ing for a dis­tant school, Fran­cie finds Katie attend­ing Nee­ley’s grad­u­a­tion, leav­ing her some­what dis­heart­ened. How­ev­er, she is relieved when her Aunt Sis­sy accom­pa­nies her. Despite not expect­ing flow­ers due to their finan­cial con­straints, Fran­cie is sur­prised to dis­cov­er two dozen red ros­es with a note from her depart­ed father at her desk, arranged by Sis­sy. Fran­cie’s peers bid her farewell with warmth, and she part ways with Miss Gar­nder, feel­ing empa­thy rather than ani­mos­i­ty. Back home, Katie prais­es Nee­ley’s grades before turn­ing her atten­tion to Fran­cie’s aver­age mark in Eng­lish. Sis­sy inter­venes, and the fam­i­ly — Katie, Fran­cie, Nee­ley, and Evy — ven­ture out for an ice cream treat. While savor­ing their treat, Katie day­dreams about her chil­dren’s future edu­ca­tion and con­tem­plates her sen­ti­ments for Sergeant McShane. Dis­play­ing gen­eros­i­ty, Katie leaves a sub­stan­tial tip. In the after­math of John­ny’s pass­ing, Katie regrets not pay­ing more atten­tion to Fran­cie’s writ­ings, espe­cial­ly rec­og­niz­ing her tal­ent dur­ing her deliv­ery. Yet, Fran­cie has burned her com­po­si­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly those post John­ny’s death, miss­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Katie to com­pre­hend Fran­cie’s sorrow.

Chapter 43

Fran­cie begins work­ing at a flower fac­to­ry, assem­bling tis­sue paper blos­soms. Despite ini­tial ridicule from her col­leagues, she earns their admi­ra­tion by engag­ing with the strict util­i­ty boy. Sub­se­quent­ly, Fran­cie and Nee­ley exchange their week­ly earn­ings for fresh bills they plan to offer to their moth­er, Katie. Upon receiv­ing the mon­ey at the bank, the clerk wist­ful­ly rem­i­nisces about his first pay­check and the tears it brought to his moth­er’s eyes. Katie reacts sim­i­lar­ly; she retreats to the bed­room, mov­ing Fran­cie to under­stand her tears. Fran­cie then pro­pos­es to Nee­ley the idea of ini­ti­at­ing a secret tin-can bank.

Chapter 44

After los­ing her fac­to­ry job, Fran­cie secures a posi­tion as a file clerk in Man­hat­tan, dress­ing more mature­ly to appear old­er. Her fas­ci­na­tion with the Williams­burg Bridge dimin­ish­es. She lat­er lands a role at a clip­pings bureau as a read­er, out­per­form­ing her col­leagues but receiv­ing the low­est pay. Grow­ing dis­en­chant­ed with the city, the bridge, and the archi­tec­ture, Fran­cie grap­ples with esca­lat­ing cynicism.

A dis­pleas­ing encounter on the El Train involv­ing a man fondling her dis­gusts both Fran­cie and Katie, though Sis­sy finds it stim­u­lat­ing. Fran­cie’s employ­er even­tu­al­ly presents her with the esteemed city read­er role, pledg­ing a week­ly wage of $20. Fran­cie choos­es not to reveal her salary increase to Katie, con­cerned it might dis­suade her from back­ing Fran­cie’s return to high school. Mean­while, Katie decides that Nee­ley, not Fran­cie, will resume school­ing, despite Nee­ley’s reluc­tance and Fran­cie’s enthu­si­asm. Katie believes that if Fran­cie gen­uine­ly desires to study, she will dis­cov­er a way. This res­o­lu­tion sparks a heat­ed debate among the trio, espe­cial­ly Fran­cie and Katie. Fran­cie wit­ness­es Katie clum­si­ly man­ag­ing a shat­tered cup, draw­ing a sym­bol­ic par­al­lel to their fam­i­ly, once strong but now fragmented.

Chapter 45

Dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son, the Nolans are finan­cial­ly steady, enabling them to buy presents. Togeth­er, they pur­chase a new hat for their moth­er and a sweater set for Lau­rie. Fran­cie and Nee­ley also exchange gifts — shoe embell­ish­ments for Nee­ley and lin­gerie for Fran­cie. Addi­tion­al­ly, they pro­cure a petite, live tree to be placed on the fire escape post-hol­i­day. As per Katie’s instruc­tions, Fran­cie and Nee­ley are tasked with gath­er­ing horse excre­ment for the tree, though Fran­cie argues they can afford to pay for the ser­vice. Fran­cie finds her rec­ol­lec­tions of her father, John­ny, turn­ing more endear­ing and less ago­niz­ing. On Christ­mas morn­ing at church, she takes pride in her grand­fa­ther’s altar carv­ings and reaf­firms her Catholic faith men­tal­ly. They col­lec­tive­ly pray for John­ny’s soul.

Chapter 46

With the dawn of the New Year, Fran­cie antic­i­pates 1917 to be a year of sig­nif­i­cant events. The neigh­bor­hood’s Ger­man res­i­dents replace Auld Lang Syne with their song at mid­night, spark­ing mock­ery from the Irish res­i­dents. With­in the con­fines of the Nolan res­i­dence, Katie ner­vous­ly hands bev­er­ages to Nee­ley and Fran­cie, uncer­tain if they will suc­cumb to John­ny’s fate. She refrains from influ­enc­ing them either way on the mat­ter of alco­hol con­sump­tion, fear­ing it may pro­voke their rebel­lious ten­den­cies. Nee­ley and Fran­cie ascend to the rooftop; Nee­ley stays sober due to his aver­sion to vom­it­ing, while Fran­cie real­izes she can savor life with­out alco­hol. As Nee­ley begins to sing, Fran­cie rem­i­nisces about her father and per­ceives Brook­lyn as a mes­mer­iz­ing city.

Chapter 47

Fol­low­ing Christ­mas, life returns to nor­mal­cy. Nee­ley enter­tains patrons at a near­by ice cream par­lor play­ing the piano, lead­ing to Fran­cie miss­ing their com­pan­ion­ship. Sis­sy’s for­mer hus­band, a fire­fight­er, pass­es away, caus­ing a stir as Sis­sy remains his legit­i­mate wife. This com­pli­cates mat­ters for Sis­sy’s cur­rent hus­band, John, who asserts his iden­ti­ty, insist­ing on being addressed by his true name, Steve. He then urges Sis­sy to annul her sec­ond mar­riage and wed him again. For­tu­nate­ly, her sec­ond spouse had already obtained a legal divorce. Sis­sy and Steve have a church wed­ding — the sole cer­e­mo­ny Sis­sy val­ues, mak­ing Steve final­ly con­tent and at peace. They lat­er divulge details about their adopt­ed child, obtained from Lucia, a woman Steve had men­tioned. Lucia report­ed­ly had an affair with a mar­ried man. Curi­ous­ly, the infant bears a strik­ing resem­blance to Steve. Sis­sy also learns she is expect­ing anoth­er child.

Chapter 48

On April 6, 1917, the Unit­ed States entered World War I. In her work­space, Fran­cie envi­sions this event as a future mem­o­ry. She col­lects a news­pa­per head­line, a poem, a lock of hair, and fin­ger­prints, pre­serv­ing them in an enve­lope as memen­tos. Sud­den­ly, a cru­cial client of Fran­cie’s com­pa­ny is exposed as a Ger­man agent. The busi­ness under­goes down­siz­ing before shut­ting down entire­ly. Fran­cie secures a new job as a night­time tele­typ­ist. The war-induced infla­tion and Fran­cie’s reduced earn­ings cause Katie to fret about finances. Fran­cie informs her moth­er that high school isn’t her path; her dai­ly news­pa­per perusals have impart­ed enough knowl­edge to ren­der school unnec­es­sary. Instead, she enrolls in three sum­mer class­es, uti­liz­ing her col­lege fund with Katie’s approval. The absence of for­mal edu­ca­tion in her fam­i­ly weighs heav­i­ly on her, but she is now pur­su­ing high­er education.

Chapter 49

Fran­cie excels in her chem­istry and Restora­tion dra­ma cours­es but encoun­ters dif­fi­cul­ty with French. She strikes up a friend­ship with Ben Blake, a senior high school stu­dent who pro­vides valu­able advice on book pur­chas­es. Ben, a class leader who also works at a law office, aspires to study law at a Mid­west­ern col­lege. He aids Fran­cie in prepar­ing for her chal­leng­ing French final by tutor­ing her in an emp­ty the­ater. Not only does Fran­cie pass her French class, but she also devel­ops a pro­found fond­ness for the the­ater and for Ben. Despite her feel­ings, she com­pre­hends Ben’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with car­ing for his moth­er and his unavail­abil­i­ty for a roman­tic liai­son. Fran­cie’s job tran­si­tions to the day­time, leav­ing her to con­tem­plate her unre­quit­ed love for Ben dur­ing her evenings.

Chapter 50

Katie and Evy evade dis­cussing Sis­sy’s impend­ing child­birth, fear­ful of anoth­er still­born. How­ev­er, Sis­sy sur­pris­es them by announc­ing her inten­tion to deliv­er her baby in a hos­pi­tal, under the super­vi­sion of a Jew­ish doc­tor, a prac­tice unheard of in the Rom­me­ly fam­i­ly. When Sis­sy’s baby arrives, it appears life­less until Dr. Aaron Arronstein admin­is­ters oxy­gen, reviv­ing the infant. Over­whelmed with grat­i­tude, Sis­sy names the baby Stephen Aaron, hon­or­ing the doc­tor and her spouse, Steve. Uncle Willie Flittman’s bid to enlist in the mil­i­tary falls through, prompt­ing him to resign from his job and lose hope. He endeav­ors to rein­vent him­self as a solo musi­cian. Despite Steve secur­ing him a posi­tion in a muni­tions fac­to­ry, Willie per­sists in con­sid­er­ing him­self a failure.

Chapter 51

A mon­tage of minor inci­dents and dia­logues unfolds. Fran­cie enrolls in dance and sewing class­es, prepar­ing for her col­lege admis­sions test. Sis­sy secures “endow­ment” insur­ance for her chil­dren, while Evy and Willie relo­cate near Queens due to Willie’s musi­cal pur­suits. Mary Rom­me­ly com­mences her jour­ney towards the cul­mi­na­tion of her life. “Sauer­kraut” under­goes a trans­for­ma­tion to “Lib­er­ty Cab­bage.” Nee­ley is rumored to be involved with a spir­it­ed girl­friend and dis­clos­es to Fran­cie that he over­heard her can­did con­ver­sa­tion with Katie long ago. Katie dis­cov­ers cig­a­rettes in Fran­cie’s bag but refrains from rep­ri­mand­ing her. As per Katie’s deci­sion, the Nolans extend assis­tance to the des­ti­tute Tyn­more sis­ters dur­ing Christ­mas. Fran­cie opts to send Ben a Christ­mas card. Fran­cie and Nee­ley opt for café au lait to wel­come the New Year, shun­ning brandy. Katie rem­i­nisces about John­ny’s habit of adding but­ter to his cof­fee when milk was unavailable.

Chapter 52

Ani­ta, a friend of Fran­cie, seeks her aid. Ani­ta requests Fran­cie to divert the atten­tion of her beau’s com­pan­ion, allow­ing Ani­ta and her beau some pri­va­cy. Mes­mer­ized­In­flu­enced by the com­pan­ion’s charm­ing grin, Fran­cie gives her con­sent. Ani­ta and her boyfriend leave, leav­ing Fran­cie with Lee Raynor. They savor chop suey togeth­er and Lee asks Fran­cie to act as his “sweet­heart” for the night, despite his cur­rent com­mit­ment. They engage in a pro­longed dis­cus­sion, and he bids her farewell with a kiss. Eager­ly expect­ing Lee’s vis­it the next day after work, Fran­cie spends the entire day with him, enjoy­ing meals and danc­ing. Just like her moth­er Katie felt about John­ny, Fran­cie med­i­tates on giv­ing up every­thing to be with Lee. The melody of “Till We Meet Again” serves as a poignant memen­to of Lee for Fran­cie. The next morn­ing, Lee leaves to see his moth­er before head­ing off to war in France. He pro­fess­es his love for Fran­cie and express­es his inten­tion to end his cur­rent engage­ment. He then sug­gests spend­ing the night togeth­er, express­ing his fear of not meet­ing her again. Although tempt­ed, Fran­cie declines but promis­es to artic­u­late her emo­tions in a let­ter. Return­ing home, she pours her ado­ra­tion for him onto paper.

Chapter 53

After an eager wait, Fran­cie final­ly receives a let­ter two days lat­er — but it’s from Lee’s new wife, not Lee him­self. They had mar­ried with­in those brief 48 hours. The new wife express­es appre­ci­a­tion for Fran­cie’s com­pan­ion­ship when Lee is in New York, con­vey­ing his apolo­gies for pre­tend­ing to have feel­ings for Fran­cie. This dev­as­tat­ing news leaves Fran­cie reel­ing, seek­ing solace in her dis­tressed moth­er, Katie. Katie grap­ples with the harsh real­i­ty that she can no longer shield her daugh­ter from the hard­ships of life. Fran­cie then ques­tions her moth­er about whether she should have been inti­mate with Lee, lead­ing to Katie shar­ing two con­trast­ing view­points. From a mater­nal stance, she argues that Fran­cie should not have jeop­ar­dized her future for Lee, a man she scarce­ly knew. From a fem­i­nine view­point, Katie mus­es that it could have been a “beau­ti­ful thing”, as such intense love is rare. This rev­e­la­tion trig­gers a flood of tears from Fran­cie, who pon­ders con­tact­ing Ben Blake but ulti­mate­ly decides against it.

Chapter 54

Sergeant McShane, now a wid­ow­er, vis­its the Nolan house­hold. He finds the Nolan chil­dren notably healthy, in stark con­trast to his own four­teen chil­dren who were most­ly ail­ing and did not sur­vive. He pro­pos­es to Katie in front of her chil­dren, high­light­ing not his sta­tus or wealth, but his own mer­it as a “good man”. Katie accepts his pro­pos­al. He asks to legal­ly adopt Lau­rie so she may car­ry his sur­name, a pro­pos­al embraced by all. As the day draws to a close, Fran­cie and Nee­ley tuck in Lau­rie, con­tem­plat­ing her future of com­fort, far removed from the adven­tures they once relished.

Chapter 55

Upon leav­ing her tele­typ­ing posi­tion, Fran­cie con­ceals her emo­tions, mir­ror­ing her moth­er’s demeanor. Amidst this, they face addi­tion­al set­backs — the pass­ing of Mary Rom­me­ly and Willie Flittman desert­ing his fam­i­ly. Evy takes up Willie’s posi­tion at the fac­to­ry. Reflect­ing on the sor­rows of her life, Fran­cie ques­tions if she is liv­ing in a dream. Despite the hard­ships, Fran­cie’s path takes a pos­i­tive turn. Through Ben’s help, she qual­i­fies for col­lege and is bound for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan in Ann Arbor — a deci­sion orches­trat­ed by Ben. Her deep-root­ed con­nec­tion to Brook­lyn remains unwa­ver­ing. Ben gifts Fran­cie with a promise ring sym­bol­iz­ing his stead­fast and car­ing nature, unlike Lee. Nev­er­the­less, Fran­cie’s thoughts drift back to Lee. The tune “Till We Meet Again,” their dance anthem, plays as Fran­cie departs. Still, Ben’s pres­ence at the end of the work­day brings her joy.

Chapter 56

The Nolans pack up their apart­ment on a Sat­ur­day in Sep­tem­ber in prepa­ra­tion for Katie’s mar­riage to Mr. McShane the next day. Mr. McShane has gift­ed Katie $1000 for their wed­ding, of which she uses $200 to pen a check for Evy, com­pen­sat­ing for the mon­ey she should have received from Uncle Willie’s insur­ance. On the same Sat­ur­day, Fran­cie vis­its Cheap Char­lie’s, a spot she fre­quent­ed in her child­hood. She pays fifty cents for a doll and instructs Char­lie to let a child win it, expos­ing Char­lie’s scam of promis­ing a delight­ful toy that kids nev­er received. Fran­cie embarks on a final tour of her famil­iar spots in the old neigh­bor­hood, includ­ing her school, McGar­ri­ty’s tav­ern under new man­age­ment, and the library. The typ­i­cal­ly apa­thet­ic librar­i­an gazes up at Fran­cie for the first time but over­looks the brown bowl with flow­ers. Fran­cie is con­vinced she won’t return to this locale. As she packs, she stum­bles upon some of her old writ­ings and con­tem­plates the prospect of resum­ing her writ­ing endeav­ors. As she irons Nee­ley’s shirt while he rush­es off for a show, they share a poignant moment before Fran­cie sets off. Nee­ley’s demeanor reminds her of their father, John­ny. While prepar­ing for her out­ing with Ben, Fran­cie pon­ders if a young girl is observ­ing her. Indeed, Flor­ry Wendy, a ten-year-old, observes her from a fire escape. Before depart­ing, Fran­cie steals a final glance at the tree in the yard.