Lizzie is an orphan living with her Aunt Annie Uncle Perce & two boy cousins in Cranberry Court Liverpool within a stones throw of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Lizzie loves her aunt but is hated by her uncle & escapes whenever she can. She makes friends with Geoff Gardiner another orphan & is teaching him to swim in the Scaldy when Clem Gilligan rescues the pair of them from drowning. Clem works on the Canal boat The Livelpool Rose with Jake Pridmore & his wife plying between the great cities of Leeds & Liverpool. But Lizzies situation at home starts to worsen as her uncle grows surlier & more violent. Eventually the worst happens & Lizzie is forced to flee from the Court or risk serious injury perhaps even death. Her first instinct is to make for the canal but finding Clem is not easy...