Danny is a modern-day Alfie whose tragic-comic adventures take him from Liverpool to a small community in the scenic Lake District. Working as a porter in a local hotel, Danny enters a world of casual sex and petty rivalries. He falls in love with a local girl, gets her pregnant and marries her in an orgy of recrimination, bruised eyes and broken limbs. Then four schoolgirls drown in an accident on the lake, and the ugly finger of blame is pointed at the outsider - Danny.