What possible connections might exist between an aged man who used to sell shoes, some ladies of the night, a serial killer, Lime Street Station and a mansion in Southport? The answer lies in love, friendship and the determination to endure all the way to the winning post. Eve, owner and madam at Meadowbank Farm, is keen to secure a deal that keeps her in pocket. But is she a match for Babs, a 'Baby Girl' in this house of ill repute?

In 1955 Scotland Road residents fear for their futures when government plans threaten to demolish their road. Polly’s Parlour café is the centre for action, where strategies are formed to fight back. But when local priest Father Brennan attacks little Billy Blunt, minds are instead turned to vengeance. Frank Charleson, business entrepreneur turned local hero after saving Billy’s life, finds himself increasingly fond of Polly Kennedy. Polly has a hard enough life as it is.

Now that her family is grown, content in the knowledge that she loves them, Lucy Henshaw decides she is free to leave. She secretly purchases a beautiful house overlooking the Mersey, and there she plans to start afresh. Within hours, she has met some characters: her new neighbour Moira, who is dying, and sees Lucy as the ideal new companion for her husband; Shirley Bishop, cleaner extraordinaire; and Dr David Vincent, who is grieving for the loss of his young son.

Headmaster Theodore Quinn has lived in Liverpool since coming over from America to fight for Britain in the 1940s. Over ten years later, he is harbouring two secrets and scars that are both physical and emotional. Where women are concerned, he and his secrets are a closed shop, until Tia Bellamy walks into his life. Tia cuts through Theo’s reserve, and the first of his secrets is shared with her.

In 1946, Alice Quigley returns to her childhood home on Penny Lane, having lost her house in Bootle and three sisters to the bombs that fell over Liverpool. Estranged from her husband Dan, she finds comfort in living closer to her remaining sister, Nellie. But even though the bombs have stopped falling, tremors still rock the family when Alice's reviled mother is kicked out of Nellie's home and seeks vengeance.

When Matthew’s beloved wife Molly died, long before her time, her son Mark grieved as much as anyone. Mark had always been a disappointment to his father – while the family business, a prosperous antiques and junk shop in Manchester, gradually went into decline during Molly’s illness, Mark was more often out stealing than helping out at the store. Tilly Povey, famous for her whiplash tongue and her copious ironing, watched the boy’s decline with a heavy heart from her house across the street.

The O'Neils, who have lost brothers and sons into the bowels of London's East End, keep watch over their one remaining young male, Seamus. Meanwhile, Rosh Allen mourns the loss of her husband. Aided and impeded by her mother, she struggles to raise three fatherless children. With the help of a kind-hearted neighbour, her wounds begin to heal. Tess and Don Compton are on the verge of separation. But what really lies behind her desire to live on the posh side of the street? Behind the three families, two men are at work.

In the backstreets of Liverpool, Eileen Watson lives with her mother Nellie, daughter Mel and her three tearaway sons. Life isn’t great, but they have each other, and family can get you through anything. Or can it? Then Britain declares war on Germany and their lives change forever. The children have to be evacuated, but Mel refuses to go, and so Eileen says goodbye to her mother and sons, moves away from the street they love and faces a future without her precious family.

Liverpool, 1940. When war comes to Britain, Jessica Wilson and her friend Ruby seize the opportunity to leave behind the orphanage they grew up in and start new lives in the NAAFI. With only forged papers as identification, the girls expect to be turned away but are delighted with an offer of work. For the first time in their lives they experience real independence, and it isn't long before they're spending their evenings enjoying the delights of Liverpool.

 1936. Polly's guardian angel has to work overtime when her large family is forced to move from the countryside they love into central Liverpool. Money is desperately short, and with her mother working and her father sick, Polly is easily led astray by the handsome Sunny Andersen. But soon war looms, and Sunny joins the navy to train as a signaller. After the horrors of the May Blitz, Polly, too, decides she wants to help her country and goes into the WRNs. She hears that an old pal, Tad Donoghue from the Dublin slums, is now in the Royal Air Force.

Thwarted in her desire to become a doctor like her brother, Robert, Pips Maitland rebels against her mother's wishes that she settle down and raise children. However, when Robert brings home a friend from medical school, Giles Kendall, it seems perhaps Pips might fall in love with an acceptable suitor after all. But the year is 1914, and the future is uncertain. Hearing that her father's friend, Dr John Hazelwood, is forming a flying ambulance corps to take to the front lines, Pips is determined to become one of its nurses and asks Alice Dawson, her maid, to go with her.

Rachel Smedling is not like the other women in her isolated Pennine village: she is taller, stronger, and weaves cloth like a man. Without her, the household would fall apart, for her mother is ailing and her vicious drunkard father seems to hate her so much, he would happily offer money to any man who would wed her. When her mother dies, Rachel is at the mercy of her increasingly violent father. Her only escape is by marrying a kindly man with whom she finds happiness, if not passion, and her life begins to seem complete.  

When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.

Dympna Byrne lives a simple life with her family on the Connemara coast. She adores her father Micheál, and does her best to help her family by working hard and expecting little. But beneath the surface there are hidden secrets. Dympna’s mother idolises her clever eldest son, yet her attitude to Dympna is puzzling. So when her family find themselves in desperate need of money, it is Dympna who crosses the water to Liverpool to seek a better life. 

London, 1875. Taking one last look around her little room in Covent Garden, Nettie Carroll couldn’t believe she wouldn’t even be able to say good-bye to her friends. Her father had trusted the wrong man, and now they would have to go on the run. Once again.