"Agnes is born to Connie and Bosco Reddin, two parents from completely different backgrounds - she the homely head of an accounting office, he a dashing factory worker and union organizer - with their own tumultuous past and whirlwind courtship to recount.

Together with her soon to be lifelong best friend Marion Delany, young Agnes manages to survive the indignities and demands of nuns and Catholic school, the unwanted births of siblings, first encounters with the opposite sex, days spent in the factories and markets, and nights in the dance hall as rock and roll invades Dublin. But on the eve of her wedding night, the Jarro is abuzz with gossip - will Agnes be turned away at the altar? For the whole parish knows Agnes's not-so-well-kept secret.

And with a mother falling further into dementia, and a younger sister turning to a life of crime, it's up to Agnes alone to keep her splintering family together, while also creating one of her very own."--BOOK JACKET.