In the 1930s, Britain was between wars and on the verge of depression. Family homes were rented, pubs were smoke-filled dens and streetlights were minimal. For seven year old, Liam, growing up against the bleak and gritty backdrop of the Irish Catholic quarter of Liverpool, along with his older brother and sister, is a daily struggle. Despite the hardships of the times, the family attempts to provide a light in the darkness. Liam′s mother is caring and devout, fighting to hold her family together. His father is a responsible workingman; proud to be employed when so many others are not. But hard times have hit the Liverpool Docks and once Liam′s father loses his job, the family is sent into intractable poverty. Helpless, embittered and determined to find someone to blame, he joins the local Fascist Party with tragic consequences. Liam is a poignant portrait of a family′s free-fall into poverty seen through the eyes of an innocent child, personifying the dream of a brighter future.