Lily works in a dockside processing plant by day and cares for her younger siblings during her every hour off. When tragedy strikes, will the nurses in St Angelus Hospital - otherwise known as the Angels of Lovely Lane - be able to save the day?

Liverpool, 1928. 15-year-old Annie Anderson was adopted by Sylvia and Hugh after the death of their own daughter. Annie is told that her own mother died in childbirth and her father died before she was born. A chance encounter introduces Annie to local lad Andrew Fraser. Their friendship blossoms, but once Annie's adoptive parents learn of it they forbid her from seeing him. When Annie asks why, it sets her on a path to discover more about her origins...

Born at the turn of the 20th century, Mae Strickland is only a few days old when her mother suddenly dies. Her aunt Maggie brings Mae up together with her own children, Eddie and Alice, and the girls become like sisters. In spite of Mae's unhappy start, life feels full of promise. Then, as the First World War looms, everything changes. While the local men - including young Eddie - leave to fight, Mae and Alice train as field nurses. As they travel...

As daughter of the blacksmith in her tiny Irish village, sixteen-year-old Kitty Doyle knows little of the ways of the world, but she has to grow up fast when her widowed father re-marries and she has no choice but to leave the family home. Luckily there's work to be found over the water in 1920s Liverpool and soon Kitty has a job in a grocer's, where she also catches the eye of the owner. With Kitty's input the business is soon thriving - but tragedy...

Christmas is coming, but will the doctors and nurses of St Angelus get a chance to enjoy it? Sister Emily Haycock and her husband are anxiously counting the days until the signing of final adoption papers for their precious baby Louis. But someone has got it in for them and Emily is about to get caught out in a dangerous lie. Nurse Victoria Baker is heavily pregnant. But as the snow begins to fall, has she made a big mistake about her dates and put...

Christmas may be the season of goodwill, festive cheer and family cheer for some - but not for the poor of 1950s Liverpool. And for St Angelus Hospital in Lovely Lane, it is frantically busy. There are the old, the dying, the children - and the emergencies. The nurses, known locally as the Angels of Lovely Lane, are run off their feet. Dana, Beth, Pammy and Victoria hardly have time to catch their breath, let alone have a Christmas of their own.

In 1946, Alice Quigley returns to her childhood home on Penny Lane, having lost her house in Bootle and three sisters to the bombs that fell over Liverpool. Estranged from her husband Dan, who suffered from two strokes triggered during the Blitz, she finds comfort in living closer to her remaining sister, Nellie, and a cast of new neighbours. But they too have problems of their own: Vera Corcoran fears for her life at the hands of an abusive husband...

1916 Liverpool. Following the death of her father, Ruby Swift, and husband Archie finally move back into Ashland Hall. As the Great War rages, fathers and sons take the King's Shilling and head off to fight the unknown enemy, not knowing what horrors lie ahead. With Ned Kincaid in the Navy, Archie signs up to the volunteer constabulary and nurses Anna Cassidy and Ellie Harrington enlist to do their bit for King and Country. Soon the true casualties...

Liverpool 1921. Pregnant, Mary Jane Starlings secret wedding to Paddy Redfern ends in disaster when her fiance is murdered on the way to the church. Paddy's wayward twin 'Red' intercepts Mary Jane and warns that they must flee Ireland for fear of reprisals from her family, never to return. Too young and terrified to question Red's motives, Mary Jane, is hurriedly escorted to Liverpool where she quickly discovers Red's good Samaritan act is a sham...

Liverpool 1953. January sees the dawn of the Queen Elizabeth's Coronation year as the mothers of Reckoners Row unite in preparation for the celebration of the new Queen. Meanwhile Evie Kilgaren is dreaming of her summer wedding to Danny Harris, but trouble looms for Skinner & Sons with a new rival trying to put them out of business, but no-one knows why. Ada Harris is summoned to the bedside of her estranged husband, who, in his dying moment confesses...