Hannah has known how hard the world is. Thrown into the workhouse by a cousin to whom her father entrusted her, she is determined to make the most of life. But when she loses the man she loves she's seduced into a violent marriage with no escape.

It's May 1941 and Liverpool is being hammered by German air raids, during which young Mary Bradshaw is dealt a cruel blow by fate. But she has her friend Eileen to help her through the knocks, and soon she finds that when one door closes, another one really does open.

When Lucy Patterson promises her dying mother that she'll leave their comfortable home to go and live with her Aunt Flo on the other side of the Mersey, she has no idea what life in the slums of Liverpool will be like.

The War had ended and Scotland Road was left to count the cost. Abbie married her sweetheart Mike, who joined the Liverpool Police Force. Hannah moved into Ashenden Hall to nurse Richard, Earl of Ashenden, which brought her happiness, and heartache.

In 'Bad Penny', midwife Patty Peel delivers a baby girl in a filthy Liverpool slum dwelling, just as the mother dies. The drunk and violent father tells Patty to get rid of it. She means to deliver the child at an orphanage, but brings it up herself.

Mary wants her girls to have what she never had. They need the security and love her hard-drinking Jack denied her. But Daisy, her daughter, falls pregnant by Sam O'Grady, war looms and her poor sister Nell despairs of ever finding love.

Louisa, with her mother dead and her father away at sea, was becoming increasingly conscious that while Aunt Babsey's family was comfortable enough, all around them was hardship and the grinding poverty of the 30s.

Bernie and Molly are just 17 when they set off from Ireland in 1928. They quickly find love with local men. The pair have tough times to face, but the bond of their lifelong friendship gives them the strength to rise to every challenge and to hold on to their dreams.

Cat Cleary - she was a 16 year-old Irish 'slummy', full of hope, arriving in Liverpool to seek and make her fortune - and become somebody in the world. In spite of her poverty, her lack of education, her family background, Cat set about realising her incredible dream.

It is 1919. Liverpool has been devastated by World War I. But at last the war is over. Emily Parkinson goes back into service and enjoys the return to normality. But her sister Phoebe-Anne has ideas beyond her station. Working as a lady's maid, Phoebe-Ann hopes that one day she will be more than just a friend to her mistress's shell-shocked brother James Mercer. When Emily is brutally attacked, the sisters' lives come close to ruin. Phoebe-Ann is...