Ginny Porter and Joan Flynn were born within days of each other in adjoining houses in a narrow street of two-up two-downs in Liverpool. They've been friends since they were toddlers and now they've become young ladies and left school. Joan finds work at Dunlop's tyre factory, while Ginny's dream comes true when she is taken on as a counter assistant at Woolworths. But things don't work out as she had expected, and for a while she carries around a dark secret. Meanwhile, a neighbour, Hannah, is devastated at the death of her son, and her future looks bleak until Ginny's mother, Beth, rallies her friends together to help the elderly woman through her darkest days. Then comes news that lifts Hannah's spirits and enables the old lady to laugh once again. And new arrivals in the street affect the lives of everyone.