Gas lights and horse drawn buses, gin-soaked night clubs and fluttering lace curtains: enter the world of Autumn Alley. Here you'll find Maud, the formidable Irish-American suffragette; sulky Patricia, whose unhappy childhood leads her to a dangerous love affair; vivacious, flame-haired Colleen; Mary, who struggles to bring up children beside her wayward husband - and Arfer, whose quick mind lifts him out of the world of poverty in London's East End.