Alison Grant is just five when her father is sent to prison for murder. Taunted at school for being a jailbird''s daughter, then abandoned by her mother, she goes to live with her grandmother. She tells her only new friend that her mother is dead and her father is a ship''s captain. It is the beginning of a new life of lies and deception, which continues after her grandmother''s death. Alison begins to dream of owning a chain of cafés and becoming a lady. But her family''s shaming secret will come back to haunt her once more.