Kitty Callaghan has a lot on her plate to keep her busy. Since her mother died when she was just a child, she has cooked, cleaned and scraped to make ends meet for her drunken father and headstrong brothers. Rita Kennedy, living with her husband under the roof of a spiteful mother-in-law, is desperate for their own home, which may help them get their marriage back on track? For the two women, and others like them in Liverpool’s dockside, the threatening clouds of war will bring heartache, and tragedy. It will take courage, and the ties of friendship and family to see them though.