It is 1948 and three year old Brenda Wilson and her parents have been rehoused on a desolate, sprawling council estate in Northern England. Cissie, Brenda's mother hates her new environment, feeling that she and her family have slipped well down the social scale.

it is impressed upon brenda from the outset, that it is her task in life to get a good education by passing the all important scholarship to the grammar school, become a teacher,then marry a refined professional man and be able to buy a semi-detached house in a respectable neighbourhood. Brenda manages to fulfil some of her mother's dreams,but not all, leading her to find an escape from reality through her faith in the magic of alcohol.

The story unravels against the background of the wide social changes that are sweeping through the western world, as the 1950s give way to the 1960s and beyond.