John Baxter directs this English drama adapted from Walter Greenwood's novel. The film chronicles life during the interwar years in the Salford slums at the height of the Great Depression as seen through the eyes of Lancashire mill girl Sally Hardcastle (Deborah Kerr), whose slide into poverty drives her to desperate measures. Forced to bestow favours upon the local bookie, she incurs the wrath of her bullying father and the censure of her gossiping neighbours.