After a rough sexual encounter with a married woman in a Manchester alley turns ugly, Johnny Fletcher steals a car and flees for Dalston, a "scrawny, unpretentious area" in the east of London. He seeks refuge with his former girlfriend, fellow Mancunian Louise. Louise is not happy to see her ex. She works as a file clerk and shares a rental house with two flatmates, Sophie, a young party girl, and primary tenant Sandra, a nurse who's away on holiday.