Donna Matkin lives with her parents in a rural area in the east of England. She is sixteen years old, and her home life is not very satisfying. Her father just considers her to be somebody else to boss around, and her mother seems to think that the television shows she watches endlessly are more important than her daughter. When a customer at her roadside flower stall shows some interest in her, she is happy to begin a sexual liaison with him. Soon, she discovers that she is pregnant, but rather than confiding in her parents or anyone else, she successfully keeps her whole pregnancy secret and even manages to give birth unobserved in a barn. At first, she is determined to leave the newborn to die, but she soon discovers that the infant gives her a much-needed reason to live.