In the (fictional) small Irish town of Knockglen in 1950, an unlikely friendship blossoms between ten-year-old Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan - an overweight, big-hearted only child - and wiry orphan Eve, being raised by nuns in a convent after her disgraced late mother's upper-class family rejects her.
A key subplot is the future of the Hogan family business, Hogan's Gentlemen's Outfitters; thrown into turmoil when Benny's father dies.