A working-class family in London's East End is fighting to keep afloat during Margaret Thatcher's administration. Only Mavis is employed; Frank, the couple's father, and the couple's two kids, Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual, and Mark, an opinionated, headstrong young man, are unemployed. This circumstance is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara and her husband John, whose financial and social affluence appears to be a convenient cover for the unspoken ache of an unsatisfactory marriage.