Representing the earliest example of modernist fiction in Irish, this narrative follows Micil O'Maolain, who has been hit by a car shortly after arriving from Galway to look for work. Emerging from the hospital, he has lost an arm and a leg, and his face has been disfigured. He becomes a sideshow freak to support himself, traveling around England and even back to Galway, but he eventually returns to London, where he dies, down and out, in one of the city's parks.