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Plot summary

Born in Brooklyn, New York City on 19 August 1930, Frank McCourt was the eldest son of Malachy and Angela McCourt. Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings: Malachy, born in 1931; twins Oliver and Eugene, born in 1932; and a younger sister, Margaret, who died just a few weeks after birth, in 1935. Following this first tragedy, his family moved back to Ireland, where the twin brothers died within a year of the family's arrival and where Frank's youngest brothers, Michael (b. 1936) and Alphie (b. 1940), were born.

Life in Ireland, specifically life in Limerick City, in the 1930s and 1940s is described in all its grittiness. The family lived in a dilapidated, unpaved lane of houses that regularly flooded and where they shared one outdoor toilet with all their neighbors. Although his father taught the children Irish stories and songs, he was an alcoholic and seldom found work. When he did find work, he spent his pay in the pubs. His family was forced to live on the dole (welfare) since he could not hold down a paying job for very long due to his alcoholism. The father would often pick up and spend the welfare payment before Angela could get her hands on it. For years the family subsisted on little more than bread and tea. They lived in fear of eternal damnation for not praying or doing devotions as often as prescribed by Roman Catholic Church authorities. Despite all the hardships, many passages of the story are told with wry humor and charm.

Frank's father eventually found a job at a defence plant in Coventry, England, yet he only sent money back to his struggling family in Ireland once. As there were few jobs for women at the time, their mother was forced to ask for help from the Church and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sometimes, Frank and his brothers scavenged for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel or stole bread in order to survive. Angela's mother (a widow) and sister refused to help because they disapproved of her husband, mostly because he was from Northern Ireland.

In the damp, cold climate of Ireland, each child had only one set of ragged clothes, patched shoes, and lacked a coat. Frank developed typhoid and was hospitalized. Later, he got a job helping a neighbor who had leg problems; he delivered coal for the neighbor and as a result developed chronic conjunctivitis. The family was finally evicted after Frank took a hatchet to the support beams of their rented home to burn for heat, causing the ceiling to collapse on them. The family was forced to move in with a distant relative who treated them very badly and eventually forced a sexual relationship on Frank's mother, Angela. As a teen, Frank worked at the post office as a telegram delivery boy and later delivered newspapers and magazines for Eason's. He also worked for the local money lender, writing threatening demand letters as a means to save enough to finally realize his dream of returning to the United States. When an elderly widow he was taking care of died, he found some money hidden in her attic. The story ends with Frank's sailing into Poughkeepsie, New York, ready to begin a new life at age nineteen.