It is 1938 and little Josie Flynn is sitting at the top of the stairs outside her attic room in Liverpool, her beautiful prostitute mother nearby. She doesn't know that her long and often lonely journey through life is just beginning. It is a journey that starts in heartbreak when Josie is sent to live with her miserable Aunt Ivy; takes her to Barefoot House where she becomes the paid companion of an elderly, cantankerous woman; and seems to promise life-long happiness when she meets handsome, charismatic Jack Coltrane in New York. But life never turns out quite the way you want...
