The Flanagans, the Tanners and the Lovells all live on the top floor of the Turnbury Buildings - a crumbling Victorian tenement in the heart of London's East End. Nell Flanagan is a decent, hardworking woman, married to Stephen, a tough, heavy-drinking brute of a man, who works as a casual in the docks - when there's work available. Nell has hidden the abuse she has suffered at his hands from her young children, although most of the neighbours realise what's going on at Number 55. The Tanners, an older, miserable couple in Number 56 think she must be asking for it, but nineteen-year-old Martin, eldest son of the Lovells at Number 57, has always admired Nell. When he sees Stephen actually attacking Nell, he can stand back no longer, but his actions have repercussions for all the families. Set in 1936 against a backdrop of civil war in Spain, the threat of fascism in western Europe, and the privations of the Depression at home, Rough Justice is the first in a dramatic new series about the lives, loves and losses, the fears, hopes and desires, the failures and triumphs of the families who live and work in and around Turnbury Buildings - a Spartan Victorian dwelling close to the docks in London's East End.