We first meet Daisy when she's five years old and selling cress on the streets of London in the 1850s. On Christmas Eve she returns to her home in Mile End, to find the family have deserted the rooms they occupied. Her parents and siblings have gone into the workhouse because her father has lost his job so they are destitute. With nobody to help her she has little option but to return to the streets of the West End and earn a crust. Initially, she teams up with a boy to sweep crossings, and eventually moves into a cellar where she lives with some other girls who are in the same situation....