Charges that the Rev ' Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation ...

When Sheila, a young mother, fails to explain satisfactorily to the doctors how her baby fractured its skull, Margaret Ash down, an NSPCC social worker, is asked to investigate. Poverty, ignorance, a work-shy husband, and almost a tradition of family instability - these are only some of the things she discovers.