A hotelier ushers a child into a bomb shelter during the Liverpool Blitz. We see a brief flashback to a woman leaving her baby in a basement surrounded by flickering candles. Before departing from the house, she quickly drops a string of pearls on the child's pillow, twined around a single rose. Years later, 16-year-old Stella Bradshaw lives in a working class household with her Uncle Vernon, and Aunt Lily in Liverpool.