In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

Once there was a good-natured old Scout who opened a drug store on the corner with the intention of making money enough to buy bird seed once in a while. The first Gink who blew in wanted to know the correct time, and not a cent's worth did he buy. The next was one of those hurry-up guys who wanted a city directory and wanted to know if Murphy was spelled with an "F." Shortly after Estelle came in and wanted to wait for Laura. She was dying for a drink of plain water, she couldn't drink soda water because the gas got up her nose. Finally, when Laura came she bought a postage stamp, and not having any pennies, said she'd be in later to pay for it.