It's 1946 and the close-knit community of Pedlar's Row in Bermondsey is full of curiosity about the new family, the Priors, moving into number three. Laura Prior is enjoying the excitement of her new home - not least because of her growing attraction to docker Billy Cassidy.

But her sister, Lucy, is finding life harder: rationing, a shortage of homes, a husband who is emotionally scarred from his internment in a POW camp, and her guilt about a wartime affair, make it difficult to settle into married life.