43 pages • 1 hour read
A Week in Winter
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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Chicky”
Geraldine Ryan, known colloquially as “Chicky,” grows up in the small Irish village of Stoneybridge. As a child, Chicky sometimes plays in the garden of Stone House, a manor owned by three sisters called the Sheedys. When Chicky grows up, she finds an administrative role in a knitting factory, where she meets an American tourist named Walter. They begin an affair, and Walter invites Chicky to come with him to America. Chicky’s family strongly disapproves, but Chicky ignores their protests and moves with Walter into a bohemian shared house. Chicky gets a job in a diner and, in writing to her parents, begins building a false life that makes her sound happier than she really is. Eventually, she tells them she and Walter have been married, another lie. Walter leaves her soon after, and Chicky, despairing, finds a job at a boarding house. She begins a new life there with her employer, Mrs. Cassidy, and learns how to cook. When she’s ready, Chicky goes back to Stoneybridge to visit her family while maintaining her deception about her life with Walter. This act goes unhindered until her niece, Orla, expresses interest in coming to visit Chicky and Walter in America. Chicky agrees while frantically trying to think of a solution. When she goes to Mrs. Cassidy for help, Mrs. Cassidy suggests having the imagined Walter die in a tragic accident. Chicky reports her bereavement to her family. In Stoneybridge, the remaining Miss Sheedy offers to sell Stone House to Chicky for a low price so that Chicky can come home. They plan to turn the house into a hotel. Chicky agrees, telling her family and friends that she bought it with the money left to her by her husband. She moves in with Miss Sheedy, and they begin preparations for the refurbishment.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Rigger”
Nuala works as a housekeeper for the three Sheedy sisters in Stone House. One summer, she meets a visitor from Dublin named Drew and begins an affair with him. After Drew returns home, Nuala learns that she’s pregnant. The Sheedy sisters find Nuala a home with other pregnant women in Dublin, and Nuala remains there with her new son, Rigger, while she works as a cleaner in various businesses and homes. One day, Nuala decides to reach out to her estranged brother, Nasey, who also lives in Dublin. Despite their years apart, Nasey is happy to see his sister and new nephew.
As Rigger gets older, he becomes involved in crimes that ultimately see him sent to reform school. Meanwhile, Nuala learns about the upheaval happening at Stone House back home. When Rigger returns home, Nasey gets him a job at the butcher shop where he works. Despite this promising turn, Rigger sets up a robbery of the shop with his friends. When Nasey encounters them and tries to break them up, Rigger forces Nasey to leave. Nasey and Nuala, after debating what to do, decide to send Rigger away to Stoneybridge. Rigger is reluctant, but ultimately he sees that it’s his only recourse.
At Stone House, Rigger begins working for Chicky in preparing for the opening. Rigger adapts to his new environment, befriending Miss Queenie Sheedy and the house cat, Gloria, working on the house and gardens. Soon after, Chicky decides to make Rigger the official hotel manager. Meanwhile, Rigger’s mother has depression. Although Rigger writes to her often, she never replies. In Stoneybridge, Rigger begins seeing a local girl named Carmel. Before long, Carmel becomes pregnant. In a panic, the couple decides to run away to England to avoid the wrath of Carmel’s family. Chicky counters by encouraging them to be married at home; she offers them an on-site cottage and convinces them they can have a good, prosperous life to present to Carmel’s family. Nuala is invited to the wedding, but declines. Meanwhile, Chicky tries to convince her niece, Orla, to come help with Stone House.
Rigger and Carmel work hard to prepare for their new life, and Carmel gives birth to twins. The female twin they name after Miss Queenie. Despite Rigger’s efforts, Nuala shows no interest in meeting her grandchildren. Soon after, Nasey announces his wedding to a woman named Irene. Nuala is in attendance, and Carmel attempts to engage her in conversation. Carmel tells Nuala that she and Rigger are happy, but Rigger is incomplete without his mother in his life. Carmel encourages Nuala to seek therapy for her depression. Moved by the discussion, Nuala begins to speak more openly with Rigger about his new life.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Orla”
As a child, Orla is fascinated by her schoolteacher, Miss Daly. Miss Daly is a confident free thinker, unusual for a woman at this time. One day, Miss Daly announces that she’s leaving Stoneybridge to run off with a younger man, and in parting, she encourages her students to travel and expand their minds. Orla stays in touch with Miss Daly during her studies in Dublin. Orla tells her of her plans to go see Chicky in New York, but the plans are derailed by Walter’s unexpected death. Instead, Orla and her best friend, Brigid, move to London.
In London, Orla finds a new job with an events company. The two men who own it both proposition Orla but are not overly hurt when she turns them down. Orla and Brigid continue to explore London until Brigid meets a rich man named Foxy Farrell. When the time for their next visit to Stoneybridge arrives, Orla goes alone while Brigid spends time with Foxy. Renovations of Stone House are in full swing, though Kathleen, who is Orla’s mother and Chicky’s sister, disapproves. Chicky and Orla discuss the possibility of Orla coming back to Stoneybridge to stay, and Chicky teaches Orla to cook. When Orla returns to London, Brigid announces that she and Foxy are engaged. As wedding preparations progress, Orla expresses her consideration of moving back.
One day, Orla, Brigid, and Foxy accompany Orla’s bosses to a client meeting. The client shows an interest in Orla, and Orla understands that her bosses are using her to seduce this new investor. The next day, Orla gives her notice and announces she’ll be returning to Stoneybridge. Orla helps Chicky update her booking and financial systems while the house begins to take shape. Miss Daly comes to visit Orla, and everyone attends Brigid and Foxy’s wedding. Once the work on Stone House is complete, Chicky hires a pair of interior designers named Howard and Barbara. Orla finds them off-putting immediately. The couple derides the aesthetic of the house, encouraging them to modernize and taking advantage of their hospitality. Orla takes command and asks them to supply design samples and sources, at which point the couple become flustered and leave. Soon, Orla begins advertising and offers a winter stay as a competition prize. She and Miss Queenie discuss Orla’s future and Miss Queenie’s excitement about the opening. However, the next day Orla discovers that Miss Queenie has died peacefully in her sleep. Her funeral is held nearby, and the whole village comes to pay their respects. Miss Queenie’s solicitor, Aiden, expresses his interest in Chicky. A few days later, the house prepares to welcome their first guests.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
If A Week in Winter is a series of nested stories, the first three chapters form their own individual story of the inception of Stone House as perceived by the other guests. The first three characters are set apart from the others in that they represent the “downstairs” service element of Stone House, with each developing a personal stake in the house’s success. As individuals, and within their relationships to one another, these characters form the cornerstones of Stone House.
The novel opens by establishing Chicky’s childhood connection to the village, which ties into the characterization of the village itself. The village is part of Chicky, and its description hints at once at her sunny surface and the unique hidden truths that will also soon be part of her, incorporating early on the theme of The Internal Versus External Self:
Stoneybridge was a West of Ireland paradise for children during the summer, but the summer was short and most of the time it was wet and wild and lonely on the Atlantic coast. Still, there were caves to explore, cliffs to climb, birds’ nests to discover and wild sheep with great curly horns to investigate (1).
This archetypal image of rural Ireland is then juxtaposed with Walter’s brash Americanness and his fascination with the Irish way of life. The two lovers connect over Walter’s desire for an Aran Islands sweater, a motif long associated with Irish life and a souvenir particularly popular with tourists abroad, even today. Although Walter misleads Chicky into an unstable situation in a strange place, he also instills in her a new way of seeing the world: “We only have one life, Chicky. They can’t live it for us. We have to live it ourselves” (3). This first chapter also introduces some of the peripheral characters, such as Nuala, with whom Chicky was friends in childhood, and the large O’Hara family, who recur at several points throughout the narrative. Chicky ends up going to America without the blessing or support of her family, and later without the support of her supposed partner, teaching her independence and self-reliance. These are two traits that she carries with her throughout the rest of her life. This period of upheaval leads Chicky to a new, surrogate home that emulates a small snapshot of Ireland.
A major turning point in Chicky’s story comes when Orla and Brigid decide to go see America, forcing Chicky to confront the lie that she’s maintained for half a lifetime. This challenge leads Chicky to become tragically widowed, at least in public, and to reassess the direction of her life. At this point, the narrative introduces Miss Queenie Sheedy, who will become a focal point in Chicky’s journey and whose memory will remain intertwined with the entire novel. Miss Queenie’s childlike wonder acts as a foil against Mrs. Cassidy’s stoic rigidity. Both women, however, become positive influences on Chicky’s growth, contributing to her process of Healing and Redemption and preparing Chicky to do the same for others later. Sure enough, once Chicky’s new plan is in motion, she becomes an active member of her community as she engages local workers in the opening of Stone House. This movement leads directly into the heart of the second story, which follows a rise-fall-rise movement in Rigger’s journey. His chapter begins with a recounting of how Nuala left Stoneybridge and arrived in Dublin, assisted by the three Miss Sheedys. Nuala raises Rigger to the best of her ability in underprivileged circumstances, which inevitably creates a divide between him and other children from more affluent backgrounds. When Rigger becomes involved with crime, Nuala experiences a cataclysmic rupture of the self. Externally, her small family falls apart as Rigger leaves Dublin and hides away in Stoneybridge. At this point, the narrative moves from Nuala’s perspective to Rigger’s as he acclimatizes to an unfamiliar place. He brings an erratic, urban energy in contrast to the softer aesthetics of Miss Queenie and Gloria. Slowly, though, Rigger’s manufactured persona wears away and reveals a hardworking, caring young adult as he is set on his path of Healing and Redemption.
The major turn in Rigger’s story comes when he becomes involved with Carmel and ends up building an unexpected family with her. In addition to being a plot point, this moment heightens tension by highlighting the growing disparity between Rigger and his mother. Eventually, Carmel is the one who is able to mend the rift between mother and son by showing Nuala who Rigger has become. This moment of healing leads the story into Orla’s perspective, beginning with her time as a restless young girl and moving into her life in London as a capable young woman. Orla exhibits similar traits to Chicky, but is more level-headed, contemporary, and self-assured. She is able to stand up for herself in the face of hardship and deflect the attentions of dishonest men. Once removed from her life in London and planted in Stoneybridge (similar to the transition of place Rigger undergoes coming from Dublin), Orla establishes herself by bringing her young, modern perspective to Chicky’s outdated methodology. This ambitious and self-assured attitude also extends to her interactions with the unscrupulous interior designers, Howard and Barbara; Orla’s ability to recognize their lack of appreciation for the house and then defend the house against them marks her own solidifying ability to do the same for herself. Between Chicky, Orla, and Rigger, Stone House is restored from the decaying overwrought residence of three unmarried women to a warm guest house. The change in Stone House is symbolic of the Personal Transformation within these three framing characters; as they heal and move on, Stone House too becomes a place to facilitate the healing of its guests.
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