Francis Phelan, part-time gravedigger, ex-professional baseball player, murderer, and full-time bum, returns to his home town of Albany, New York. In the novel, Ironweed, by William Kennedy, the main character, Francis Phelan, must return home twenty years after the horrific death of his infant son in order to face his past so he can move forward. The two days and two nights in which the novel spans are Halloween and All Saints" Day of the year 1938. During these two days Francis encounters and converses with many ghosts pertinent to his past, including his companions from childhood, his parents, as well as those he violently murdered. According to Charles Fanning, "the two Irish feasts associated with commerce between the living and the dead, the Celtic Samhain as well as the Christian All Hallows, actually joins the Halloween time frame of Ironweed." Throughout the novel, Kennedy address various Irish-American issues such as respectability toward others, the influence of prostitution, as well as other issues involving the Irish-American immigrants as they struggle through the depression while it takes its toll on America.
The novel opens with the dark comedy of graveyard conversation between Francis and his hobo buddy, Rudy. Francis has just returned to his hometown of Albany, New York twenty years after the tragic death of his infant son. The two men are working at the graveyard shoveling dirt as well as performing other back breaking labor in order to make a few dollars to continue their own existence. .
After they received their pay they headed to the homeless shelter where they met Francis" lady friend Helen. When Francis first abandoned his family he lived with Helen for a few years and then alcohol took over his life and so he was forced to live on the streets. After receiving their meager meal of watered down soup, the three of them headed up town to a saloon in which they knew the owner of.
