Circle of Friends

Circle of Friends Summary | Plot Summary

In 1958, best friends Eve Malone and Benny Hogan leave the small town of Knockglen, Ireland to go to the university in Dublin. Their encounters with Jack Foley and Nan Mahon teach them about true friendship.

In Knockglen, Ireland in 1949, Benny Hogan celebrates her tenth birthday and befriends classmate Eve Malone. Benny is the only child of protective parents Annabel and Eddie, who own a menswear shop. Eve is an orphan being raised by nuns in a convent. Eve's mother's family, the Westwards, who are Protestants, objected to the marriage of Eve's mother Sarah Westward to Eve's father Jack Malone, a poor Catholic. They disowned Sarah and refused to raise Eve after Sarah died in childbirth and Jack committed suicide. Because Eve's father was a handyman for the convent, the nun Mother Francis got custody of Eve. Benny and Eve become best friends after Benny defends Eve from teasing about her poverty and Eve defends Benny from teasing about her weight.

In 1957, adult Benny and Eve are about to be separated because Benny can afford to go to the college in Dublin while Eve cannot. The rich Westwards have never given Eve financial support. Eve plans to take a secretarial course in Dublin while working and living in a convent run by Mother Clare. Mother Francis has tried to get money from the Westwards for Eve's schooling, to no avail. Meanwhile, Benny has to go home to Knockglen every night after going to school at the university during the day. She also avoids her father's assistant, Sean Walsh, who wants to marry her. Eve, who wants to go to the university, does not like the demeaning conditions in Mother Clare's convent and meets Benny in Dublin. As they walk, a motorbike crashes, and a car that swerves to avoid it hits Eve. Benny and another student, Nan Mahon, are slightly hurt. The motorbike driver, Frank Hegarty, dies, but the car's driver, Dr. John Foley, is not hurt and helps the others. Eve has to stay in the hospital with minor injuries, and Benny and Nan are treated and released. Benny and Nan, who are attending the same university, talk, and Benny tells her Eve's history. Jack Foley, John's son, is a university student also. He goes to the hospital to check on his father and meets Nan and Benny. While Eve recovers in the hospital, Mother Francis is able to get Eve released from Mother Clare.

While visiting Eve in the hospital, Mother Francis meets Kit Hergarty, Frank's mother, who owns a boardinghouse for students. Mother Francis consoles her and invites her to the Knockglen convent. After recuperating, Eve is determined to go to the university and asks Simon Westward, her cousin, for tuition money, although she does not like the Westwards. Simon is a thirty-year-old man who lives in Westlands, the Westward estate, with his twelve-year-old sister Heather and an ailing grandfather. Simon gives Eve the money for tuition at their first meeting, and Heather likes her newfound cousin. Eve can now go to the university with Benny and Nan, who she also met in the hospital. Eve meets Kit at the Knockglen convent, and Kit invites Eve to work and live in Kit's boardinghouse while she goes to school. Eve, Benny and Nan are close friends at school, but Nan has social ambitions that her friends do not know about. Nan lives in Dublin with her alcoholic father Brian, her timid mother Emily and two brothers. She keeps her unhappy home life a secret from her friends. Nan is beautiful, and she and her mother dream she will marry a rich man.

Benny is attracted to Jack but thinks he just likes her as the funny friend. Jack's friend Aidan Lynch likes Eve, and they grow closer. Since Jack is the handsome rugby player, Benny, who thinks she is too big, does not think she is good enough for him. However, after a dance, Jack asks Benny out on a date, and they develop a romance. Benny and Eve meet other friends at college, including Carmel, Sean, Bill, Rosemary, Sheila and Johnny. Through Benny and Eve, Knockglen residents Fonsie and Clodagh join the group. They are both in family businesses, and their unconventional styles cause controversy in small town Knockglen. While Benny and Jack and Eve and Aiden are couples, Nan snares Eve's cousin Simon, much to Eve's dismay. Nan hopes that Simon is her entry into wealth, but the Westwards have money problems. Simon intends to marry a wealthy woman from England.

The friends support Benny when her father Eddie dies suddenly. Eddie is in the middle of setting up a partnership in the shop with Sean when it happens. With her mother Annabel unable to help, Benny has to get involved with the shop. She discovers that Sean has been embezzling money and is able to kick him out. This helps to strengthen Annabel, who takes over the shop. After getting pregnant by Simon, Nan realizes his true intentions and seduces a willing Jack. Jack has been pressuring Benny to have sex, but she refuses. Nan tells Jack the baby is his, and they get engaged. Benny is devastated, but with the support of Eve and her mother, she is able to accept it. At a party where Jack and Nan are not welcome, Eve figures out that Simon is the baby's father and has a confrontation with Nan. Nan falls and miscarries. Jack and Nan part ways. He wants to reconcile with Benny, but she refuses because she cannot trust him. Eve and Benny plan to share an apartment in Dublin, and Benny is happy with her friends.