Jackie, a seven-year-old boy from an Irish Catholic family, is embarrassed and disgusted by his grandmother, Gran, when she moves into his family’s house. He dislikes her country manners so much that he refuses to eat at the table with her. When his sister Nora tries to force him to eat at the table, he attacks her with a bread knife. His father beats him for his behavior, and his mother intervenes on Jackie’s behalf. The anger within the family after this incident lasts a week. Jackie blames his grandmother for it all, believing that the only solution to his problem is for her to no longer live in their house.
Jackie is preparing for his first confession, a Catholic ritual of atonement for sins. His teacher Mrs. Ryan is obsessed with hell, and she has frightened Jackie with a story about a man who fails to confess all his sins and then goes to hell. Even so, Jackie doesn’t know if he should tell the priest about attacking his sister and plotting to kill his grandmother, because those sins seem so enormous.
When he goes to Confession, Jackie doesn’t know where to sit in the confessional and he climbs up onto a shelf made for adults’ elbows. He falls off the shelf and out of the confessional. At first the priest is angry, but Nora scolds Jackie and hits his ear. The priest scolds Nora for hitting Jackie and sends her away. The priest shows Jackie the right way to sit in the confessional. His kindness makes Jackie feel safe, so he tells the priest about attacking Nora and plotting to kill Gran. The priest tells him both of these violent urges are normal and reasonable, even while he scolded Nora for a much smaller act of violence against Jackie. The priest assigns Jackie only three short prayers of atonement, and then gives him candy. Both Jackie and Nora walk away from the church understanding that there is no need to be good—both children can see that Jackie is favored over Nora.
