Summaries

Synopsis

Set in 1950s Ireland, Bernadette "Benny" Hogan (Minnie Driver) has two friends, Eve Malone and Nan Mahon (Saffron Burrows). They are characterized early on in childhood, during their first Communion: Benny is the beloved and well-fed only child, Eve the orphan raised by nuns and Nan is poor but destined to be defined by her beauty. The three girls grow up in the small town of Knockglen. Eve finds an abandoned cottage in the woods on the Westward estate and takes a liking to it.

Skip to six years later: Nan has moved on to University College Dublin a year earlier, and Benny and Eve are set to follow.

Eve's education is financed by the local wealthy Westward Protestant family, her father's employers until his death. The fees are 65 pounds per year for 4 years. The family has also willed to her a cottage on their property. She has inherited a cottage in Knockglen but boards at a Dublin convent during the week.Benny's loving but overprotective parents insist that she live at home and commute to university. They would prefer she marry the loathsome and creepy Sean Walsh (Alan Cumming), her father's faithful employee at his tailor shop.Sean takes Benny to a local movie theatre and makes an attempt to grab her breast in the darkness. Benny is disgusted by this behavior and pushes him off her. Sean retorts that Benny (due to her family's poor economic condition) is not in a position to be so proud and choosy.

Once in Dublin the two girls reconnect with a mature and sophisticated Nan who is quite aware of her bewitching effect on the opposite sex. Benny eventually falls in love with Jack Foley (Chris O'Donnell), a handsome rugby player and doctor Foley's (Tony Doyle) son, studying medicine and expected to follow in his father's footsteps, though he is not quite convinced that this is the career for him.Jack likes that Benny knows who she is and what she wants to be in life, whereas Jack feels that he is just trying to be things for other people.

Benny initially assumes she isn't sophisticated or pretty enough for Jack, but after spending time together at the College Ball they begin dating. At the Ball, Jack had asked Nan for a dance, as he could not decide which one of the 3 girls, he liked the most. But Nan was not interested in Jack as she liked more mature men. Jack asks Benny out for a dance and says that he was saving her for last.Jack tells Benny that he has never had sex, when she asks.Eve also begins a relationship with Jack's friend Aidan (Aidan Gillen), and hosts weekend parties for her university friends at her cottage.

Professor Flynn (Ciaran Hinds) is their humanities teacher at college, and teaches them about the different societal structures followed by different tribes of humans across the world.

The girls visit their hometown, and Nan becomes involved with the much older Simon Westward (Colin Firth), a rich Irish Aristocrat. While Benny is able to resist a physical relationship, Nan is not and believes that Simon truly loves her.In the meantime, when Benny's father dies suddenly, she leaves university to help her mother run the business, and Sean Walsh attempts to woo her into marriage. The accounts of the prosperous Hogan business are missing significant funds, creating a mystery over double-entry bookkeeping or some other cause. Benny suspects Sean is responsible, but lacks proof

Eve's cottage, in an isolated sector of the Westward estate, serves as a party location for the three young women and their friends. Nan and Simon visit it secretly for sex. Eve begins to suspect that someone has been going into her cottage while she's away. Nan suggests that the cottage might be haunted.

Nan becomes pregnant and Simon leaves her, offering to pay her off with a large check to get an abortion in England. A desperate Nan runs into a drunk Jack at a rugby team party, who has not seen Benny since her father's funeral. Nan lures him into having sex with her to force his hand into marrying her by later pretending that he got her pregnant.

Nan confronts Jack, who does what he believes is the honorable thing and asks Nan to marry him. He tells Benny about the baby and the engagement, and she is devastated.

Eve throws another party at the cottage. Nan convinces Jack they should attend, though he feels uneasy about it. Eve, having guessed that Nan has secretly been meeting Simon at her cottage, confronts Nan and waves a bread knife at her. Nan backs away, falls through a glass door, and is severely cut. Jack attends to her injuries. Benny leaves the party.

Benny searches Sean's living area for evidence that he has stolen from her family's business. Sean finds her there and attempts to sexually assault her. She fights him off, and in the struggle uncovers the hiding place for the money he has embezzled. Benny orders Sean to leave before she calls the Guards.

Nan decides to begin a new life in England. After Jack sees her off, he tries to win Benny back. He explains that aiding Nan convinced him that he was really meant to be a doctor. He says that he never loved Nan, and is in love with Benny. Benny tells him his actions have changed her and their relationship and they must take their time.

In a voiceover, Benny says Jack addressed his studies and pursued her, while she moved to Dublin to share a flat with Eve. A paper Benny writes causes a stir and points towards her career as a writer. In time, she falls in love with Jack again. The final scene shows her taking Jack to Eve's cottage. As he follows her inside, Benny says "Bless me father, for I have sinned," implying they have finally consummated their courtship.