Salford, England in 1926 is a musty, damp, coal-stained remnant of the industrial revolution. Clarrie's parents, William and Sally Hancock, along with most of their neighbors, are engaged in a desperate struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Hope of a better life is seen as an exercise in futility as the class structure appears set as stone. As she grows, Clarrie finds escape in reading. She identifies with the heroines of her library books and sees no reason to accept the lower-class category to which she was assigned. At school it is drummed into her that she must...