When thirteen year old Tim Cooper's mother dies of flu in a London hospital, he could not have envisaged the cataclysmic changes her loss would make to his life's path. He takes over the running of his father's market stall at fifteen and from this small beginning attempts to build a retail empire with the help of some remarkable characters.

He falls in love with a clever, attractive, young heiress, Sophie Vieri, and hopes to marry her. The couple experience a firestorm of resistance to their relationship from her upper-middle-class parents. Sophie is involved in a serious road traffic accident and is comatose. Tim sits at her hospital bedside for three days and nights waiting for her to wake up.

Will she recover and be undamaged?

Will his business be successful?

Will her family put aside their prejudices and allow the marriage?