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 Harbour to Cork with their four children — Frank, Malachy Jr. and twins Eugene and Oliver — to return to the land which mystified young Frank had only heard of as ‘where there was no work and people were dying of starvation and the damp.’