A collection of moments in the childhood of Bud, a Liverpudlian schoolboy in 1955. Plucked from his cosy home when he is sent to his new Catholic school, the film looks at his loneliness as teachers and pupils pick on him and his increasing isolation at home as he hovers between childhood and adolescence. His beloved film idols and screen stories keep him company in his imagination but in the real world he feels increasingly like a misfit.