Allie and her friends Louise, Irene and Daisy all work at Dunbar & Jones, one of the country’s most glamorous and sophisticated department stores. Allie’s a salesgirl in the dress department, Louise works in lingerie, Irene is a typist in accounts and Daisy makes hats in the workroom out the back.

In the week before Christmas 1953, as the country prepares for a Royal Visit by young Queen Elizabeth and the store is crammed with wealthy shoppers, smoke is detected drifting from the basement lift shaft.

What happens next will sear the heart of the city and tear families apart. It will also test friendship, love and loyalty and open wounds that never heal.