Kitchen sink drama directed by Ken Loach. Young mother Joy (Carol White) is forced to fend for herself when her brutal and uncaring husband, Tom (John Bindon), is put in jail. Joy finds brief happiness with Tom's criminal associate Dave (Terence Stamp), who proves kind and gentle when she moves in with him, but this relationship ends when he is also jailed, and Joy is left to raise her young son alone in squalid circumstances.