The Country Girls: Three novels and an Epilogue by Edna O'Brien (2017) is a story of two girls raised in poverty in Ireland. They experience various bouts of ill-fated love and trials of financial hardship. In the first novel, the shy Kate's mother dies and her father is abusive, while the assertive and beautiful Baba's father is kind.

Both girls attend convent school but are expelled. This prompts their trip to Dublin, where Baba goes to school and Kate works in a grocery store. Kate also begins an affair with a married man, who leaves her devastated. Baba becomes ill with tuberculosis and is away for six months.

In the next book, The Lonely Girl, Kate meets an older man named Eugene at a party. Eugene buys her gifts but turns out to be emotionally distant and unforgiving. Kate's father does not approve of Eugene, finds him, and assaults him.

Kate is abandoned by Eugene, and she and Baba go to England together. Baba works in a hotel, and Kate goes to school in England.

In the final book, Girls in Their Married Bliss, Kate and Eugene marry and have a child, and Baba marries a rich man named Frank. Kate has an affair with a married man, prompting Eugene to leave her. Meanwhile, Baba has a child with another man, though her husband accepts the child when she confesses.

Kate becomes depressed and cuts herself and finds out that Eugene and his mistress have taken Cash to Fiji.

In the Epilogue, Kate has drowned, having reconnected with Baba just a week before her death. Baba takes Kate's remains back to Ireland and meets Kate's son, Cash, whose reaction to her death reveals his love for his mother.