One by one, all the women and girls in Vere's young life abandon him - his laughing mother, big-hearted Tanty, brave, stubborn June, pudgy Kim - next door, drunkin' Angela, romantic Makeba the Rasta queen, his uptown girlfriend, Elisabeth. The only constant presence in his dilapidated Dead End home, as Vere matures from a mischievous small boy to a gifted but aimless fifteen year-old young man, is his abusive grandfather, a retired policeman, who drinks away his pension cheques and regularly uses his thick uniform belt to keep the resentful Vere in line. In the end, even his grandfather leaves him, and all Vere has to depend on, as he has done for years, is himself.