What will the future bring for teenage Ellie? Struggling in working-class wartime England, she is determined to have an education and a career, and if possible happiness and romance. Fortunately the love of her life is willing to join her fight against the middle-class hypocrisy of the age - and his own type - and together they look forward to building a new life and a new world after the war. At times though any sort of life seems precious, any plans futile, and any future an eternity away.