Frances Beaumont leaves school with ambition and enthusiasm for her future but a life-changing event forces her to abandon her fledgling career as a reporter, her parents and her village home. She finds refuge with a charity in the city and is horrified to see the conditions in which many people live, particularly the old and the handicapped. Her own living conditions are also basic. Still determined eventually to be a journalist, she campaigns to improve the lives of the vulnerable and gains substantial support from a man she met on the train when travelling back from school for the last time. The man has considerable influence locally and repeatedly helps her to improve her life. The setting is the mid 1950s in North Staffordshire, England, and is an accurate portrayal of the prejudices of village life, and the grime and poverty of post-war Stoke-on-Trent - known as The Potteries.