Emmy Dickens lives with her widowed mother in a neat house in neglected Nightingale Court, but Mrs Dickens has always impressed upon her daughter that her main aim in life must be to escape from the court. Emmy sees that marriage is her best way out and when Peter Wesley, First Officer aboard a cruise ship, asks her to marry him, she is over the moon.

Life goes well for the newly-weds, they set up home and start a family. But when Peter is killed and Emmy is left almost penniless, her problems begin…