Eugene soon dies from pneumonia, and Angela is once again depressed. Frank’s father continues to drink away the family’s money.
The McCourt’s move to a two story home where they are surprised to find that they must share a latrine between eleven families. The McCourt’s continue to struggle for money. Angela has another child, Michael.
Malachy finds it shameful that his wife begs the men from the St. Vincent de Paul Society for boots. He soon starts a new job, temporarily exciting his family, but loses it the next day due to drinking.
It comes time for Frankie to have his first communion. He worries about his first confession, but is relieved when he is forgiven. The next morning, Frankie’s communion does not go smoothly. He throws up the communion breakfast his grandmother makes for him and his grandmother drags him back to the church to confess.
Frankie joins “boys’ division of the Arch Confraternity” so that his mother can prove to the St. Vincent de Paul Society that he is a “good Catholic.” The Arch Confraternity is strict about attendance, and boys who miss can shame their families and get in trouble with their prefects.
Frank’s father decides that Frank should become an altar boy, but Frank is rejected from the church. Once a month, Frank’s father continues to spend their dole money at pubs.
Frank begins helping his Uncle Pat deliver papers and meets a kind man, Mr. Timony, who asks him to read to him every Saturday for a sixpence. Soon, Uncle Pat no longer wants Frank to help him with papers, and Mr. Timony is taken to the “City Home. Frank loses both his jobs.
Angela has another baby boy named Michael. Frank’s grandfather sends five pounds for the new baby, but Malachy spends it at a pub.
At his confirmation, Frank’s begins to bleed from his nose and is too sick to make his Collection. He is diagnosed with typhoid fever and is sent to the hospital where he comes close to death. Frank is punished for speaking to a diptheria patient, Patricia, who reads him poetry. He is moved to a vacant ward upstairs where Seamus, a man who cleans for the hospital, tells him more about poems. Frank spends his days in the hospital reading books.
When Frank is finally released he is told he has to repeat his fifth year of school, but is moved back up the sixth after his teacher is impressed by one of his compositions.
Frank expresses how he loves the father who reads him the paper in the morning and tells him stories at night, but dislikes the father who comes home drunk. The McCourt’s living conditions are miserable because of the stench of the lavatory, the flies and the rats, but the family cannot afford to move.
Angela tells Malachy she is done having children, and Malachy goes to England so that he can work and send money back to his family. They wait for their first telegram, but the money never comes.
Frank gets an infection in his eye and is sent to the hospital, where he sees both Seamus and Mr. Timony. Mr. Timony tells him to be sure to continue reading, and Seamus comes three times a week to recite poetry to him.
Angela falls ill, and Frank steals to feed the family. Angela is diagnosed with pneumonia and the boys go to stay with their Aunt Aggie while Angela recovers in the hospital. Frank’s father comes home and takes care of the boys for a couple of days, but leaves once Angela is well again.
Malachy only sends money to his family once, forcing Angela to turn to the Dispensary for money. Frank is shamed when he sees Angela begging for money at the Redemptorist church.
While looking through his mother’s trunk, Frank finds out he was born before his parents had been married for nine months. He wonders if perhaps this makes him a saint. Mikey Molloy tells Frank that his early birth means he is doomed. The next day, Frank scores the winning goal in a soccer game and decides he must not be doomed after all.
Frank begins helping Mr. Hannon deliver coal. Although the pay is good, Frank’s mother worries that his eyes are getting worse and tells him he must quit. However, at the same time, Mr. Hannon’s is taken to the hospital for his legs and doesn’t need Frank to work anyways. Mrs. Hannon invites Frank over and tells her how Frank has been like a son to Mr. Hannon.
Unable to afford wood for fires, the family resorts to taking boards from the wall of their apartment. Frank cuts into a beam supporting the roof and it begins to collapse. The McCourt’s are evicted and they go to stay with Laman Griffin, Angela’s cousin. He sleeps in a loft to make space for the family, but shames Angela by having her perform tasks for him. He sends Frank to the library to retrieve books for him and allows Frank to take out one book for himself as well.
Frank’s grandmother dies of pneumonia, and Malachy goes “to Dublin to be a soldier and play the trumpet.”
While retrieving Laman’s books, the librarian notices how often Frank is reading stories of saints and writes a note telling his mother that he has potential to become a priest.
Frank’s teacher, Mr. O’Halloran, tells him that he is smart and should continue his schooling. Angela takes Frank to the Christian Brothers to tell them Mr. O’Halloran has recommended him for further schooling, but they tell them there is no space. Frank takes a job as a telegram messenger, and Mr. O’Halloran tells him he should go to America so as not to waste his talents.
Frank’s mother begins sleeping with Laman. Frank feels guilty because he is continuously committing the sin of masturbating. Laman argues with and beats Frank, causing him to leave and live with his Uncle Pat.
Frank finds a Chinese book left laying out at the library and picks it up to find it is about sex. The librarian catches him reading it, takes his library cards and sends him home.
Frank begins work as a telegram boy, hoping to save enough money to go to America. Michael and Angela soon come to live with Frank and Uncle Pat.
One day while delivering telegrams, Frank begins a sexual relationship with Theresa Carmody, a girl with the consumption. Theresa soon dies, and Frank feels worries that she is in Hell because of him, but he is too afraid to go to confession.
Frank begins a second job writing threatening letters for a creditor names Mrs. Finucane. He plans to take an exam and work permanently at the post office, but takes a job delivering protestant newspapers instead. His boss and peers at the post office feel that Frank thinks he is too good for them.
The night before Frank turns sixteen, Pa Keating takes Frank for his first pint. At home, Frank fights with Angela about Laman and hits her. Frank goes to church the next day where a kind priest helps him to confess and be forgiven for his sins.
Frank begins his work delivering papers for Mr. McCaffrey. On one occasion, all of the employees must run around Limerick tearing out a page of a magazine that is about birth control and thus impure. Frank makes nine pounds after keeping some of these pages to sell.
Angela works in the home of a rich old man, Mr. Sliney, and Malachy goes to England to work in the gas works.
Three years go by, and Mrs. Finucane dies. Frank takes much of the money she has been saving to pay for masses after her death. He now has enough money to go to America, and after a party at his home, he leaves.
Before reaching Albany, the boat stops for a night in Poughkeepsie, where Frank goes with a priest to a party on shore. Frank sleeps with what that priest considers a “bad” woman at the party.
When Frank returns to the ship, he agrees that America is a “great country.”
