The story of the childhood and youth of an Irish poet-scholar, Stephen Dedalus, who questions his Catholic faith as he reaches manhood in turn-of-the century Dublin.

A close examination of the story "After the race," which originally appeared in Dubliners that argues that the story represents a microcosm of some of the issues most central to Joyce scholarship: evolution as an artist, the Catholic Church, and nostalgia for a rapidly changing Ireland.