Robbie attempts to move out of his parents house but soon realizes that renting in Dublin isn't as simple as he thought. Accompanying him on his journey are his piggy bank and the voice narrating his life.

Jimmy Rabbitte, just a tick out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.