The underbelly of London in the early 1930s. The Midnight Bell is a drinkers pub on the Euston Road where Bob, the young and impressionable barman, falls for Jenny, a street prostitute. Before he knows it she's got under his skin and emptied his bank account. It's the first part of a trilogy which is told from Bob's perspective. The second part, The Siege of Pleasure, concentrates on Jenny and how she plies her trade up and down Wardour Street.