Synopsis by Gerry O'Flaherty

Sir John Rogerson's Quay

Bloom has come about a mile from his home to Sir John Rogerson's Quay. It is about ten o'clock and although it is not indicated in the text, Bloom goes by a roundabout way to Westland Row post office to collect a letter left poste restate under his assumed name, Henry Flower.

He is conducting a half-hearted affair by letter with Martha Clifford, which he knows will never come to anything. He meets C.P. M'Coy who annoys him by comparing their respective wives' singing abilities.

Mosque like baths Bloom passes

In a quiet street nearby Bloom reads Martha's letter in which she encloses a yellow flower. Bloom puts the flower in his waistcoat pocket and goes into All Hallows church where Mass is ending.

In Sweny's chemist shop he buys a cake of lemon soap and has a prescription for skin lotion made up for Molly. Outside, Bantam Lyons waylays him and asks to see his newspaper. Bloom offers it to him saying that he was going to throw it away, thus, innocently, giving a tip for a horse called Throwaway running in the Gold Cup at Ascot that day. Later, this will get him in to a lot of trouble. We leave Bloom as he makes his way towards the Turkish baths in Leinster Street.

Westland Row

Here the Homeric correspondence is to the land of the lotus-eaters, where Odysseus' men, when they eat the lotus, forget their responsibilities and want only to remain where they are and have to be forced back aboard their ship.