The first act begins on an August day in 1883, in the Irish agricultural village of Baile Beag. The scene is a hedge school run by Hugh O’Donnell, an erudite man who teaches Irish language to the villagers, along with Latin and Greek literature. His oldest son, Manus—a man in his late 20s who is “lame” (1) and wears shabby clothes—serves as an unpaid teaching assistant. In the opening scene, Manus works patiently with a young woman named Sarah, who has a severe speech impediment, teaching her how to pronounce her own name. It is clear from this scene that Sarah harbors a secret infatuation with Manus, but he does not appear to return her feelings. 

While they wait for Hugh to return from a baptismal service he’s performing in town, Hugh’s old bachelor friend, Jimmy Jack, reads from the Aeneid and waxes about the “flashing eyes” (4) of Athene. An attractive young woman, Maire, arrives bearing a pail of milk. Maire joins Jimmy in speaking what little Latin she knows, reflecting that she wishes she knew English. The only English Maire knows is a saying acquired from her Aunt Mary, when Maire was four: “In Norfolk we besport ourselves around the maypoll” (8).