Will the streets of London be paved with gold? Two children - one poor, one wealthy - escape from the privations of nineteenth-century Hull to make their fortune in London. Young Mikey Quinn is thrown into prison for stealing a rabbit. His chief accuser has a daughter Eleanor, whom he badly mistreats. When Mikey is released he walks all the way to London, but finds it even worse than Hull, and falls under the evil patronage of the sinister Tully, first encountered when he was in prison. He also meets Eleanor again, and together they make a new life for themselves before facing the journey back to Hull - the long walk home.