After Gracelin had returned home to her family, they began to run out of resources like food and seed. She realized that things would only get worse for her and her family if she did not return to Bram. Her family was reluctant to let her go because of the horrible things she had endured while she was there. When she was ready to leave Nolan came to pick her up. When she arrived at the house she received no welcome from Bram. She came home to learn that while she was away Bram would take little Mary Kate on hunting trips with him and strapped her to his back so he would not be shot at, by rebels, while he was hunting.
Meanwhile all of her friends had realized that Gracelin could not live like this anymore. They had been scheming against Bram and once he started to hurt her daughter as well, she knew that someone had to stop him. One morning as he was going out hunting again, Gracelin left Mary Kate with Brigid so that Bram could not take her with him. Before he left Gracelin put arsenic in his sandwich, a poison that would if not kill Bram, make him disoriented. Along the way her brother Sean had set up himself, Nolan, Moira, and Morgan along the path that Bram would be taking. They secretly followed him on his way and waited for him to take a bite of his sandwich. When he finally did he noticed that it tasted funny, so he did not finish it. He only became disoriented so one of the others included in the plan took a shot at him. He fell to the ground. It appeared that he died but when the boy, Nolan, went to check on him, Bram pulled out his gun and shot the boy. When Nolan's sister Moira saw this, she came out and shot Bram dead. By this time they had stirred up some commotion, so Moira got on Bram ‘s horse and rode off, shortly followed by some of Bram’s men.
Bram was dead and Gracelin and her daughter were now free to live a life on their own. When Bram’s brother came to the house for the funeral of his brother, Gracelin had to act as if Moira’s son was her own. Edward, Bram’s brother, wanted the boy to grow up to be a Donnelly as well as be schooled in England instead of Ireland. She made a deal with him that the boy could be schooled in England if Brigid could go with the boy and work in the house. He also had to send money back to Gracelin for Mary Kate's schooling. Since the rest of Brigid’s family had died other than Moira's son, they were all each other had and Brigid was greatful for the deal that Gracelin had made for them that would give her and the baby a better life.
Since Gracelin was no longer married she and Morgan reunited and they confessed the feelings for each other that they had always kept hidden. They were married in a matter of minutes right before they fled the country.
Despite all of the awful things that Gracelin had to go through, everything worked out in the end. Many people died along the way but her and her daughter had no lasting injuries from the abuse. She was married to the love of her life at the end and she will also have more time to spend with her family.
Overall I really liked the story of Gracelin O'Malley. It was very interesting and gave a realistic point of view of the potato famine. There were never any dull parts of the story which made it entertaining to read. I would reccomend this book to any readers looking for something taking place in a real event or someone that wants a book that is difficult to put down, because of the lasting excitement. This book brings through many different emotions from intense anger to happiness for Gracelin and Morgan at the end of the story. The book was well written and also gives the reader a sense of the hardships that were faced during the potato famine.