Rural Ireland, 1925: When a concerned visitor drops a bundle of newspapers into the centre of the table in her small cottage, Etta May can't help feeling she is being banished from her home. She feigns interest and sifts through the pages. A regular column in The Freeman's Journal, The Paris Diary, captures her imagination, and begins to shape her destiny. She sets out on a journey that would see her living in a lifeless tenement room in Dublin's Fishamble Street where she encounters many trials and deep disappointments. A frequent visitor to the nearby Iveagh Market, Etta is soon remodelling second-hand clothes from bygone days into styles inspired by the glitzy Paris Fashion Parades of the day. A deep friendship is forged with an old shoemaker, and she becomes affectionately known as Jewel, a name that would become an imprint throughout her life and beyond.
