A musical play dealing with emigration and the lack of jobs at home that forced people to leave their native Ireland for England. It describes the emigrants 'longing for home' — 'Everyone is lonesome leaving home' — their annual homecomings and their return to jobs and places they disliked — 'back to their night shifts, an' filthy digs … with their long faces leanin' out o' the carriage windows with the thoughts of what's waitin' over'.