The second novel in Farrell's pentalogy picks up where A World I Never Made left off in the ongoing saga of the O'Neill and O'Flaherty families. Continuing on the theme of poverty's effect on children, we return to scenes of Danny O'Neill's life in Chicago, where the schism between his life in public and his private experiences at home begins to create in him a tension and bewilderment suggestive of the problems he will face in his future.