Set in the Irish immigrant community of New York after the Second World War, this novel centres on the aftermath of the death of the charming, romantic and witty raconteur Billy Lynch. His family and friends gather at a bar in the Bronx to remember better times. They admire the way his widow, Maeve, is holding up but cannot think of Billy without saying 'There was that girl' - the lovely Eva left him for another man, but Billy always believed her dead. Did his cousin Dennis's well-meaning lie drive Billy to drink, and was it the revelation of the truth that finally killed him?