This British drama offers a gritty slice from the life of a hard-working Welsh single-mother. The story is set in the Rhondda Valley in southern Wales and follows the travails of young Jo, the mother of a young daughter. Jo works in a sweatshop as an ironer. Though she is rather poor, she has a good life. Her lover is Kevin, who is married. In her spare time, Jo studies. Recently she just moved into her own apartment in a project after spending several years with her slovenly father. To supplement her meager income, Jo sometimes models, and does the occasional phone sex gig. She uses part of this extra money to help out her troubled little sister, Andrea, a heroin addict. Jo's life begins to fall apart when she learns that she is 15-weeks pregnant. Upon hearing this, her charming lover, Kevin, backs off. She then discovers that he has also been sleeping with one of her friends. Then she hears that Andrea was nearly arrested and simultaneously, her mother becomes deathly ill. Jo knows that she cannot legally get an abortion, and so decides to take another course. With little self-pity or remorse, she conceals the pregnancy, bears the child in the woods, and promptly kills it. She then goes back to resume her life. Unfortunately, her troubles are not over, for the police find the infant's corpse floating in a river and launch a massive search for the murderous mother.