1964. George has always treated Barbara like she was something special, which may be why she entered the Miss Blackpool Belle beauty pageant. But that experience is the final straw in showing her that her current path, which includes being engaged to butcher Aiden, will lead to a life of being a domestic nobody in Blackpool. So she picks up to leave all that she knows behind her to move to London in that goal to be a somebody, although without a clear vision of what being that somebody actually is. Working in the millinery department of Lewis Peters Department Store and meeting Marjorie and a slew of young women who are much like her, Barbara at least discovers what she thinks she wants to do to make that name for herself, and tries to parlay her position at the store to reach her goal, all behind the back of critical Miss Sykes, her boss. The harder she tries, she does take some steps forward, but takes as many steps even further back. It may be when she least expects it that she may get a break, but that break is not without its own obstacles and heartaches.
—Huggo