There are numerous times in Dee Kirby's life when she wishes she had never been born. As the unwanted, unloved child of a notorious prostitute, Dee lives in a sordid, seedy world and, despite tough opposition from her hard-faced mother, she steadfastly refuses to follow in her profession. Instead Dee is determined to break away and forge her own path in life, but whenever strangers learn about her true roots their reaction is one of disgust and cruelty, and she's back where she started. Then her mother's tragic death leaves her a terrible legacy from which there seems no escape.