Liverpool, 1924. Racing to meet her fiance in her father's new-fangled motor car, Penny Forshaw knocks over a little girl and - much to her fiance's disapproval - feels it her duty to take in six-year-old Kelly while she recovers. But little did Penny anticipate the challenges and responsibilities of looking after a child from the slums, and Kelly's miserable, poverty-stricken existence opens Penny's eyes to a world she never knew existed.