Angela's Ashes

[Yolanda]

It tells the story of Frank McCourt and his childhood after his family is forced to move back to Ireland because of financial difficulties and family problems derived from his father's alcoholism. The film chronicles his life in Limerick, Ireland, during the 1930s and '40s, the difficulties that ensued, and finally Frank's way of earning enough money to return to the land of his dreams: America.

[ddiaz]

I've found more information about its plot:

The narrator, Frank McCourt, describes how his parents meet in Brooklyn, New York. After his mother, Angela, becomes pregnant with Frank, she marries Malachy, the father of her child. Angela struggles to feed her growing family of sons, while Malachy spends his wages on alcohol. Frank's much-loved baby sister, Margaret, dies and Angela falls into depression. The McCourts decide to return to Ireland. More troubles plague the McCourts in Ireland: Angela has a miscarriage, Frank's two younger brothers die, and Malachy continues to drink away the family's money.

Frank's childhood is described as a time of great deprivation, but of good humor and adventure as well. When the first floor of the house floods during the winter, Angela and Malachy announce that the family will leave the cold damp of the first floor, which they call “Ireland,” and move to the warm, cozy second floor, which they call “Italy.” Although Malachy's alcoholism uses up all of the money for food, he earns Frank's love and affection by entertaining him with stories about Irish heroes and the people who live on their lane.

Over the course of a few years, Angela gives birth to two sons, Michael and Alphonsus. Alphosus is called “Alphie” for short. As Frank grows older, the narration increasingly focuses on his exploits at school. When Frank turns ten, he is confirmed (Confirmation is a ritual that makes one an official Christian or Catholic. When Frank was growing up, people were confirmed around ages seven to ten). Right after his confirmation, Frank falls ill with typhoid fever and must stay in the hospital for months. There, he gets his first introduction to Shakespeare. Frank finds comfort in stories of all kinds, from Shakespeare to movies to newspapers. By the time he returns to school, his gift for language is obvious. In particular, Frank's flair for storytelling gets him noticed by his teacher.

With the onset of World War II, many fathers in Limerick go to England to find work and send money back to their families. Eventually, Malachy goes as well, but he fails to send money home. Frank begins to work for Mr. Hannon. This is the first in a series of jobs. Frank will go on to work for Mr. Timoney, Uncle Ab, the post office, Mrs. Finucane, and Mr. McCaffrey. Frank enjoys the feeling of responsibility he gets from working, and he dreams of saving enough to provide his family with food and clothes.

The McCourts get evicted from their lodgings and must move in with Angela's cousin Laman. Angela begins sleeping with Laman, an arrangement that makes Frank increasingly uncomfortable and angry. He also begins to feel guilty about his own sexual feelings. The priests' strict mandates against masturbation make Frank feel guilty when he masturbates.

While working as a messenger boy, Frank begins a sexual relationship with a customer, Theresa Carmody, who eventually dies of consumption, leaving Frank heartbroken. Frank saves enough money to get to New York. On his first night there, he attends a party and sleeps with an American woman. Though sad to leave behind Ireland and his family, Frank has great expectations for the future.

[Isabel]

Plot summary
Born in Brooklyn, New York City on 19 August 1930, Frank McCourt is the eldest son of Malachy and Angela McCourt. He is joined by brother Malachy in 1931, twins Oliver and Eugene in 1932, and a sister, Margaret, in 1935. After the death of his sister Margaret when she was only a few weeks old, his family moves back to Ireland, where his younger twin brothers both die within a year of the family's arrival and where Frank's youngest brothers, Michael (b. 1936) and Alphie (b. 1940) are born.

Life in Ireland, and specifically life in Limerick City, in the 1930s and 1940s is described in all its grittiness. The family lives in a dilapidated lane of houses that regularly floods, and share one outdoor toilet or lavatory with all their neighbours. Although his father teaches the children Irish stories and songs, he is an alcoholic and seldom finds work (when he does he spends the paycheck money in the bars), and so they live on the dole (welfare) or charity while the father spends days drinking in bars. For years the family subsists mostly on bread and tea.

Frank's father finally gains employment during World War II at a defence plant in Coventry, England. In this situation, he finds it easy to drink away most of his wages, and only once does he send any money back to the struggling family in Ireland. Their mother is destitute, as there are not many jobs for women at the time, and must beg for help from the Church and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sometimes Frank and his brothers have to scavenge for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel, or steal bread to survive. Angela's sister and her widowed mother begrudge any help they have to give her, because they disapprove of her husband, mostly because he hails from Northern Ireland and therefore he has a strange accent and what Angela's family calls 'the odd manner.' The McCourt family are continually afraid of going to hell if they do not pray or confess often enough as specified by the church.

In the damp, cold climate of Ireland, the children have only one set of ragged clothing each, patched shoes and no coats or boots. Frank develops typhoid and is hospitalized. Later, he gets a job helping a neighbor with leg problems deliver coal and develops chronic conjunctivitis. The family is finally evicted after Frank takes a hatchet to the beams to burn for winter heat and the ceiling collapses in on them. The family is forced to move in with a distant relative who treats them poorly, eventually having an affair with Frank's mother, Angela. Teenage Frank starts work for the Post Office as a telegram delivery boy, and later delivers newspapers and magazines for Eason's. He also works for the local money lender writing threatening letters to the people who owed her money, as a means to save money and is finally able to realize his dream of returning to the United States. The story ends as he sails into Poughkeepsie, New York, to begin a new life at the age of nineteen.