Maria, a tiny, middle-aged, well-loved, and peacemaking woman with a job in Dublin by Lamplight,[1] a rescue mission for wayward women,[2] is looking forward to a holiday evening at the house of Joe, whom she nursed when he was a boy, along with his brother Alphy, and of whom she is still very fond.

At the bakery, Maria is somewhat teased by the clerk, who asks whether she wishes to buy a wedding cake, mirroring a similar joke made at the earlier tea.

Maria is soon enticed into playing a traditional Hallow Eve game with the children in which objects are placed in saucers and a blindfolded player has to pick among them.

Maria is allowed to choose again, and this time fetches the prayer-book, indicating a life of spiritual vocation (service at a convent, suggests Joe's wife).

After drinking some wine, Maria sings the aria "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls" from the opera The Bohemian Girl by Michael Balfe.