Publisher's Synopsis
A young boy deals with the death of his friend, an elderly priest who ended his life paralyzed. His mother brings him to the wake, where they sit with the priest's sisters, and learn some unsettling facts about the priest's last days. A young boy, longing for adventure and escape from the tedium of school life, plays hooky with a classmate. The boys traipse about some of Dublin's seedier areas, finally coming across a very strange old man, who may have some dark intentions. A youth in the throes of his first passion hopes to win a girl's affection by buying a gift at Araby, an Orientalist bazaar. But when he does go to Araby, he finds nothing but disappointment. A nineteen-year-old girl struggles with poverty and the difficulties of supporting her family. Her means of escape is a sailor named Frank, who promises her a new life in Buenos Aires. At the end, however, she is too frightened to leave Dublin. Jimmy Doyle, the dilettante son of a nouveau riche merchant, tries to keep up with his wealthy and sophisticated friends from the continent. He ends up losing badly in a card game aboard a wealthy American's yacht. Corley and Lenehan, the seediest characters of the collection, plot to get some money out of Corley's newest girl. While Corley works on her, Lenehan has all too much time alone. He reflects on the unreliability of friends and the unchangeable poverty he lives in. But in the end, Corley works his magic and gets his girlfriend to give him a shiny golden coin. Mrs. Mooney, proprietor of one Dublin's boarding houses, learns that her daughter Polly has been carrying on an affair with Mr. Doran, one of the boarders. She responds by trying to trap Mr. Doran in a marriage with Polly.
