To Nora Webster, life in a small rural community in Ireland feels like being trapped inside a prison. Having been born and raised in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, she has never lived in a place where the entire community does not know everything about her. Even people Nora hardly knows seem to be aware of every detail of her life, just as she knows every detail of theirs. Other than the darkest secrets, the lives of everyone in the community are laid bare for all to see. In such small towns, there is no such thing as privacy, and Nora feels trapped in a panopticon masquerading as a community. Beset by a constant sense of surveillance, cataloguing, and judgement, Nora has no space to herself. She cannot go anywhere or do anything without being observed, and she is therefore robbed of the necessary time and space to grieve for her dead husband. The constant parade of unannounced visitors becomes an arduous gauntlet of social obligation, in which one wrong comment or one declined offer of tea is enough to spread rumors of her rudeness throughout the town. As a result, Nora comes to resent her life in this small town, feeling trapped inside a prison with her unresolved pain.