Bristol, 1938. A shadowy presence overshadows Coronation Close, watching and waiting. Jenny Crawford is the first to notice the stranger and wonders why his attention is fixed on Thelma Dawson's house. When challenged he makes a hasty retreat. Meanwhile Thelma is having trouble with her precocious daughter Mary who is about to leave school and start work. Mary considers herself an adult but to Thelma she's still a little girl; an attitude resented by her daughter. Unknown to her mother, Mary is secretly befriended by a stranger, an older man who treats her as the grown up she thinks she is. But what does this man want with this naïve young girl? Problems shared are problems halved. Jenny and Thelma certainly share theirs as the shadow of war rolls over from Europe and nothing seems certain.