A compelling saga set in turn-of-the-century London - When their mother dies, young Ellie Jay and her sister Dora are abandoned by their hard-drinking father, and they cannot afford the rent on their East End tenement. Ellie cannot turn down an offer of help from Doctor Lowe, a kindly man who sees in Ellie a surrogate daughter. His kindness offers Ellie and Dora an opportunity to escape their background and, ultimately, to make something of themselves...