Emily had been a quite horrible child. Pushy, rough, and none too clean (for it must have been Emily who passed on her head-lice to the Adams family), she had been the bane of Mrs Adams and her children who lived next door, and especially she had been a trial to Boots, who had avoided her whenever he could.

But Emily grown-up was a different matter.She was still a cockney girl, but now she had a certain elegance, a style.The fighting toughness was still there - and she needed it.For Boots, back from the trenches, was blind, and Emily was to prove the mainstay, the breadwinner, and the love of his life.

Much of this book focus on the marriage of Boots Adams to Emily. The beginning of the marriage is hard for the young couple due to Boots still being blinded from the war. But with the coming the 1920's, there is great change coming to the whole Adams family.