This is the story of fifteen-year-old Marcy Tomlinson and her family's journey in Kingston, Jamaica, between the 1950s and 1970s. The Tomlinson family's dream becomes reality when they move from the inner city to a middle-class neighbourhood in East Kingston. But their dream-life is short lived. Arthur, the patriarch and an alcoholic, in a drunken fury one night, orders his wife Rose to 'Leave mi house, now!' Rose, a dressmaker, leaves everything behind and, with her four children, flees to her mother, Mari, 'Granny'.