In late nineteenth-century Ireland Corney Crone grows up in a family marked by poverty, pride, and spoiled aspirations. The recurring theme in his own life is one of solitude, present in the private dreams of his boyhood and the insistent independence of his manhood. In old age the note of loneliness is more dominant: he is the 'bird alone', reliving the experiences of his youth, above all the secret love for his childhood sweetheart, which began in innocence and happiness, and ended in tragedy and shame.