Set in 2004, Theresa, the daughter of Irish parents, takes a memoir writing class to write about her brother and his struggles with alcoholism. She begins his story with her parents' early beginnings in Ireland. The memoir class members want to hear more details about her parents and not the abbreviated version Theresa began her brother's memoir with. When told about her daughters' subject matter by phone, her mother, Noreen, is very embarrassed. She states, "This is everyone's Irish story". The following week, Theresa again phones her retired mother for more details regarding her life in Ireland. Unbeknownst to Theresa, Noreen has been staying up nights to write pages and pages about her life. Theresa decides rather than edit her mother's story herself, she would tell Noreen's story based on Noreen's personal writings and leave the nuances of the story exactly the same, as written by her mother.
