Alice McDermott writes what she knows. She was raised as an Irish Catholic girl on Long Island. As was I. Sally, Anne and Liz are the secular women of the story. Their lives are changed due to the kindness of the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor. The Ninth Hour is a beautiful tribute to all the nuns that she knew. The nursing order in The Ninth Hour heals the neighborhoods physical issues and soothes their emotional ones.