A poor child strikes matches for warmth and dies in the snow.
A tyrannical bootmaker's daughter weds his meek assistant.
Marriage and the challenges of motherhood prove too much for ex-factory worker Mary. Will she follow the sound advice of the health visitor - played by famous actress Dorothea Baird, who also conceived and wrote the film - and improve her ‘mothercraft’ skills, or will she continue to take solace in alcohol, as prescribed by her wayward neighbour?
