1981. Glasgow. The city is dying. Poverty is on the rise.
Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreamed of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect - but false - teeth). When her philandering husband ups and leaves, she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest.
It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Fastidious and fussy, he shares his mother’s sense of snobbish propriety. The miners' children pick on him and adults condemn him as no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place.
