It's the summer of 1953 and in the South of England, Mickey Ray is living a lie. Mickey is a bareknuckle boxer, a prize-fighting gypsy who is the son of the Romany camp's leader. He is eighteen and is engaged to Rosa, a strong, traditional Romany girl. Mickey's lie is simple, he is gay in a society that won't worry about the illegality of the fact, they would see him dead for it. Mickey accepted a long time ago how his life would be but he has a chance encounter with a local teenager. Tom is a quiet, introverted boy; raised by his mother after his father died in the war. His education places him between being a labourer and a clerk and as such, he fits in neither world. Solitary and frequently bullied, the youth spends his time buried in library books. When Mickey and Tom meet, Mickey has the first glimpse of a possible alternate future than obligation dictated to him.