For the inhabitants of Liverpool's Milton Street, a steady income and a safe roof over their heads are precious luxuries. The Ryan family have barely grown accustomed to having such things when a fire destroys, at a single stroke, the modest coal haulage business their father Jack has built, leaving him broken and his family wondering how they will survive. It;s not long before they're forced to turn to Conor, Jack's brother from Ireland, a man whose noisy joviality seventeen-year-old Ellen Ryan suspects hides a mean viciousness. She's right, and with her mother sick and her half-sister Annie becoming increasingly feckless, it's down to Ellen to fight Conor's drunken tyranny. But when Annie disappears, leaving her unwanted baby on their doorstep, Ellen begins to fear not only for her own safety, but for that of the innocent child she has instantly learnt to love...