Life seems to alternate between periods of stunning happiness for pretty seventeen-year-old Sheryl Williams after she marries dashing soldier Alun Powell, and times when bad luck and despair When their baby Caitlin is born and Alun, having recently left the army, is unable to find work, they are reduced to living in the slums of Cardiff's Tiger Bay Their life together is full of rows and recriminations and when Alun is involved in a vicious fight and imprisoned, estranged from her own family a desperate Sheryl is forced to turn to the Powells, who take in Caitlin while Sheryl seeks work in Cardiff Then one fateful day, seven-year-old Caitlin sets off in search of her mother, without a word to the Powells