After suffering a traumatic stillbirth, Eileen abducts a baby boy from his pram and, once she’s caught by the police, is sentenced to nine months in prison. Whilst there, she's interviewed by Dr Sillitoe, a psychiatrist.
Provides examples of:
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Dr Sillitoe thinks that Eileen started dating her Asian boyfriend, Shahid, because she wanted to scandalise her parents. He never seems to entertain the possibility that Eileen, as someone whose parents were very overbearing and critical of her, might simply have been attracted to Shahid because he was kind to her.
- In Medias Res: The action starts with Eileen being visited in prison by a priest and then cuts back and forth between time spent with the psychiatrist and the events leading up to her arrest.
- Oop North: Takes place in Lancashire.
- Raised Catholic: The prison staff arrange for a priest to visit Eileen since she's a Catholic, but Eileen herself is pretty dismissive of him.
