The story open with a young boy reflects on the impending death of his friend Father Flynn.

The narrator had brought the priest snuff (tobacco) daily, and the priest had taught the boy about numerous topics, especially the traditions of the Catholic Church but also taught him to pronounce Latin properly from which we can say that the priest was a cultured person.

One day Old Cotter, a family friend, has come to the house to share the news that Father Flynn is dead and knowing that everyone waits for his reaction, the boy remains quiet.

-At that moment a conversation ensues between the uncle and Old Cotter, and the uncle notes the high hopes Father Flynn had for the boy. He hints that Father Flynn planned to prepare the boy for the priesthood and remarks on the friendship between them. Old Cotter, however, thinks of Father Flynn as a “peculiar case” and insists that young boys should play with people their own age.

It is revealed that the priest had died after an illness, and the narrator and his aunt visit the priest's home, where they are met by the priest's sisters, Eliza and Fannie.

-The two sisters talked about Flynn’s odd behavior, which started with dropping a chalice during Mass. When one night Father O’Rourke and another priest found Father Flynn shut in a confessional box, laughing to himself, they finally realized he was sick.

The narrator, an unnamed boy, describes the North Dublin street on which his house is located.

He thinks about his family that moved in and the games that he and his friends played in the street. He recalls how they would run through the back lanes of the houses and hide in the shadows when they reached the street again, hoping to avoid people in the neighborhood, particularly Mangan's sister.

The sister often comes to the front of their house to call the brother, a moment that the narrator enjoys a lot.

-He places himself in the front room of his house so he can see her leave her house, and then he rushes out to walk behind her quietly until finally passing her. The narrator and Mangan’s sister talk little, but she is always in his thoughts.

By the time he actually speaks more to her and one morning, Mangan’s sister asks the narrator if he plans to go to Araby, a Dublin bazaar and him
forgotting what he answered yes or no, at the end he gallantly offers to bring something back for her.

The narrator now cannot wait to go to the Araby bazaar and procure for his beloved some grand gift that will endear him to her.

-This brief meeting launches the narrator into a period of tension in anticipation of the bazaar. He cannot focus in school. He finds the lessons tedious, and they distract him from thinking about Mangan’s sister.

-On the morning of the bazaar the narrator reminds his uncle that he plans to attend the event so that the uncle will return home early and provide to give him some money.
But his uncle arrives so late from work and equivocates so much that he almost keeps the narrator from being able to go, nonetheless he go out of the house, in spite of the late hour, toward the bazaar.

-But the Araby market turns out not to be the most fantastic place he had hoped it would be. It is late and most of the stalls are closed. The only sound is "the fall of the coins" of some men that count their money.

He approaches one stall that is still open, but buys nothing, feeling unwanted by the woman watching over the goods. With no purchase for Mangan’s sister, the narrator stands angrily in the deserted bazaar as the lights go out.

Eveline Hill sits at a window in her home and looks out onto the street while affectionately recalling her childhood, when she played with his brothers in a field now developed with new homes.