The title of the story is Eveline, which is the protagonist's name. The short story takes place in Dublin, and it is divided in 2 parts, a longer one and a shorter one.

The first part starts with Eveline watching out of her home's window; She starts thinking about her past. She remembers her childhood and , in particular, the field where she used to play with her brothers and sisters and with the neighbour's children. We can already understand that her father was quite violent because, while remembering this, she says that her father used to hunt her and the other children with his blackthorn stick. 

However, the past is in contrast with the present : in fact we realize that her brothers and sisters are grown up and they don't  live there anymore, her mother is dead and the Waters, a family who lived near there, had gone back to England.

Many things were changed and now she is going to go away like the others. Thanks to this passage we understand that she has got the intention to leave home, even if we don't know where she wants to go.

The narration now focuses on her job, and we realize that Eveline hates her job at the Stores and Miss Gavan, her employer. She thinks about the consequences of her escape too. She asks herself what would people say about her escape.

 Her life in Dublin is a hard life, she is sad and she afraid of her father's violence .In her new home instead it would  not be  like that ,she would be married and people  would treat her respect.

Now Eveline reflects on her father's violence; when she was a child he had never attacked her because he used to hit Ernest and Harry. But recently he begun to threaten her , and she had nobody to protect her. In fact her brother Ernest was dead and Harry was always away from home because of his job.

Her life is hard but now that she is about to leave it, she doesn't find it so undesirable.

At this point, it is revealed the name of the mysterious person that Eveline should marry. This person is Frank, he is a sailor and Eveline describes him as a very kind man. She wants to go with him to Buenos Aires in order to start a new, better life. He  knew her because he was lodging in a house in the main road where she used to visit, moreover he used to meet her every evening out of the Stores. Eveline's father found out the affair, but he didn't like this situation and he didn't want Eveline to meet Frank.

Now, Eveline's thoughts go back to her family, in particular she thinks about Harry and her father. She loves Harry even if Ernest had been her favorite , and she admits that her father isn't so bad, in fact sometimes he could be very nice.

Even if time passes, Eveline is still watching out of the window, and down far in the oats she can hear a street organ playing. Suddenly, she remembers the last night of her mother's illness: another organ player who was out of their house had been ordered to go away, and she remembers her father going into her mother's room saying bad things about the Italian player. Her mother, in her last moments of life, used to repeat with foolish insistence the following words "Derevaun Seraun!".

Now, Eveline leaves her thoughts and she comes back to reality, standing up in a sudden impulse of terror. The only word that comes to her mind is "escape", she realizes she has to go away, she has got the right to happiness and she believes that Frank would save her.

Eveline's first part has got no action, in fact the entire scene develops in Eveline's house, while she is watching out of the window, thinking about her entire life. We notice that she hates her life, which is full of difficulties and we can imagine her sad, empty childhood. She wants to escape from Dublin in order to start a new and happier life, she wants to leave her past behind.

However, from several passages of the text, we can realize that she has some doubts. When she looks around her house, focusing her attention on all those familiar objects. We can perceive that she is afraid to leave, she is afraid of the unknown, in fact she is about to escape in an unknown and distant country. When she is thinking about her job at the Stores, Eveline thinks about the consequences of her escape too, and this can make us thinking that she is not sure about her decision.  

Now that she has decided to leave this life, it doesn't look so horrible, and when she reflects over her father's violence, on the other hand she admits that sometimes he can be very nice. Eveline's conscience is divided in two parts, one is telling her not to leave, the other one instead sees in the escape the only way to be happy.

The second part is the conclusion of the story. The setting, that is the place where the events take place, changes: it is not Eveline's house but the pier, from which she should leave towards Buenos Aires with Frank. In this part the protagonist act but the conclusion of the story is not happy. She is unable to take a decision and at the end the boat leaves and Eveline misses the opportunity to change her situation leaving with her boyfriend.