Amir, an illegal immigrant, makes his way into Britain buried beneath piles of vegetables, finding refuge in a bleak terraced house with 17 other men in the same situation. Things look up when he gets work at a mill, but then Hussein Shah, the house leader, brings home Mary, an attractive woman with a murky past.

In the Glasgow of 1968, young teenager Lex Maclean is torn between the artistic life of his middle brother Alan, and the thuggish world of his older sibling, Bobby.