In Hanky Park, near Salford, Harry and Sally Hardcastle grow up in a society preoccupied with grinding poverty, exploited by bookies and pawnbrokers, bullied by petty officials and living in constant fear of the dole queue and the Means Test.His love affair with a local girl ends in a shotgun marriage, and, 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 and there are other more powerful rivals for her affection.