Robert Sullivan has been left to raise three-year-old Nancy and her seven-year-old brother Jack by himself.

Unable to cope, Robert is driven to abandon his children to those he believes can provide them with a better life. However, he quickly has a change of heart and decides to go back for them. But on the way there, he is involved in a horrific accident.

Jack and Nancy are placed in the brutal regime of the Galloway Children’s Home, where Jack’s fierce devotion to his sister and fiery temper land him in more trouble. Clinging together, the two children find themselves at the mercy of the corrupt Clive Ennington.

When Robert begins to recover in hospital he is determined to find and reunite his family. But he soon begins to realise the terrible consequences of his own cowardly actions.