Elsie Weir is trying hard to keep her family together. Living in Kiltie Street tenement in Glasgow with her mother and little sister Jessie isn't easy - not least because her mother spends most days in a drunken stupor. But life gets harder still when their mother dies suddenly leaving Jessie and Elsie broken-hearted. The future looks bleak until their mother's estranged family deigns to take them in. But their relief is short-lived as it becomes clear the Mearns family have taken in the orphan sisters only for appearances treating them cruelly behind closed doors. When Elsie discovers the devastating secret her mother kept from them it seems that they may have a lifeline - until that dream too is cruelly dashed. Now more than ever the sisters only have each other. But can Elsie and Jessie find some hope in a life full of heartbreak?
