In Hanky Park near Salford Harry & Sally Hardcastle grow up in a society preoccupied with grinding poverty exploited by bookies & pawnbrokers bullied by petty officials & living in constant fear of the dole queue & the Means Test. His love affair with a local girl ends in a shotgun marriage & disowned by his family Harry is tempted by crime. Sally meanwhile falls in love with Larry Meath a self-educated Marxist. But Larry is a sick man & there are other more powerful rivals for her affection.