After her dastardly husband Billy tries to sell her at a wife sale, Lily Fowler finds herself alone, frightened and heavily pregnant on the streets of Hull. Her brave attempts to find work are futile and when she is turned away from the workhouse and other such establishments for women in her ''condition'', Lily is forced to swallow her last iota of respectability and work in a brothel in Leadenhall Square. Unexpectedly, things begin to look up. Lily sees potential where others can only see destitution and ruin and soon forges strong relationships with the other women there. They are all good-hearted women who have fallen on hard times and together Lily and her ''fallen angels'' outwit the low-life brothel-keeper and work to turn the house in Leadenhall Square into something altogether more respectable. And before any of them know it, doors swing open, lost loves are recovered and the happy endings none of them dared to dream of begin to materialise...