When Lily is a young teenager, the time comes for her and her friends to leave school and find work; some are emigrating to America, some going to work in shops. Lily is going into service in the Big House - Lissadell.
Lily's employers, the Gore-Booth family, are kind, but life as a young housemaid can be hard: Lily works long days, she has to learn to get along with the staff, particularly her roommate, the sullen and uncommunicative Nellie,...