Francie Fitzgerald is a fourteen-year-old girl living in Newark, New Jersey in the 1880s.
She is looking forward to being educated and independent against the wishes of her Aunt Molly who feels a young Irish girl should just learn to clean and cook at home.
Francie is dedicated to her dreams of being the first person in her family to graduate from high school.
One day, Francie is so upset she feels she needs to get out of the tenement, or she will just burst.
On her way to the lake, she stumb.