Glasgow during the Depression. Lizzie Conway has clawed her way out of the slums of the Gorbals despite the crippling debt left behind by a long-vanished husband. Lizzie sacrifices her own chance of happiness to break the endless round of poverty that engulfs them, all for the sake of her three precious daughters, Polly, Babs and poor, deaf Rosie. But as the girls grow up, Lizzie is unable to protect them from the biggest threat of all--falling in love with men like their father. But the girls themselves seem to be determined to make marriages as unwise as the one she made... Lizzie is a fighter, but - to her surprise - so are more than one of her girls.