Violet falls in love with a handsome Irishman and soon realizes that she will have a very different life to the one she's known.
1919. Violet Griffiths and Patrick Murphy secretly get engaged.
She is a respectable shopkeeper's daughter. He is the son of a thief who was recently jailed for robbing Violet's father. Violet refuses to renounce her love, is thrown out by her outraged family and has to make a new life with the disreputable Murphy family.
They come from the rough part of town, a run-down district that houses local Welsh side-by-side with Irish immigrants. The old fools work together in the docks by day, only to beat each other black and blue each night outside the Lamb public house.
Times are hard, money is tight and tempers run short.
Will Violet's new life be everything she hopes for?