It is Saturday night and the Pier Ballroom in Swansea is the place to be: For Lily, an evacuee unclaimed by her family at the end of the war; for Judy, taught independence by her war widow mother; for Katie, the product of a marriage between a drunken, violent father and a cowed, beaten mother; and for the spoiled, wilful Helen. It is an evening that fuels jealousies and sows the seeds for friendships, confidences, and romance . . .