One wild night in the '30s, midwife Patty Peel is called to attend a birth on the opposite side of Liverpool. She pedals off into the storm and delivers a baby girl in a filthy slum dwelling, just as the mother dies. The drunk and violent father tells Patty to get rid of it, so she takes the child away, meaning to deliver it to the nearest orphanage. But Patty had spent her entire childhood in an institution, except for the frequent occasions when she ran away, and cannot bear to hand the baby over. However, she has few friends and despises the men with whom she comes in contact, so how can she hope to bring up the child alone? She has no idea how the baby will affect the attitude of those around her...nor how her life will change as a result...