In 1935, when it is more common for Irish families to leave their famine-stricken country for America, the impoverished McCourt family do the reverse. Following the sudden death of her 7-week-old daughter, Angela and her unemployable, alcoholic husband, Malachy Sr. set sail from New York Harbor to Cork with their 4 children- Frank, Malachy Jr. and twins Eugene and Oliver- to return to the land which a mystified young Frank had only heard of as “where there was no work and people were dying of the starvation and the damp.”