Standing at the corner of Morning Lane on a Sunday lunchtime is a weekly ritual for sixteen-year-old Jane Flynn. With her parents ready to serve the Sunday roast, sending Jane to wait outside the pub is the only way her beloved brothers Shaun, Pat and Rory will finish their Guinness and return home.
But when Rory sees Jane being harassed by local bully Barney Hobbs, it isn't long before the Lord's Day is interrupted with a flash of his Irish temper. Barney and Rory have a rivalry that goes back many years - a mutual hatred inflamed by the seductive Cathy Meadows, the girl who broke up Rory's relationship with the poor but pretty Josie Guntrip, the girl who broke his heart by leaving him for the better-off Barney.
When Cathy returns to the East End, Rory finding himself besotted once more, and with Barney using Jane to get at him, he hasn't the time to give Josie a second thought. Which is a shame, because not only has Josie never stopped loving him, but with the death of her spiteful, overbearing mother, she's about to get a surprise that will change her life for ever . . .