Marianne and Connell are back in Dublin and together as a couple. Life is calm and they are at ease with each other. Then Connell receives news that he has been offered a place to study in New York. Neither of them know how to process the news and so they decide to let it sit. Life goes on. Marianne stays with Connell and Lorraine for the Christmas holidays, and is embraced by their extended family. During New Year’s celebrations, Marianne and Connell kiss in front of their old schoolmates. Back in Dublin, Marianne’s mother has asked her to take out the last of her things from the flat that she lived in at the start of college. Alone in the house together, they discuss the offer from the New York university once more.