The year: 2000. Adamus and Evemus, two young mice, set about trying to recreate society after a cosmic disaster has devastated the rest of Earth. Able to talk and reason, they follow the example of man, using the Bible and 4628 editions of the New York Times as their guide to life. And the result is an all too human chaos....

The cheerful chaos of a Californian schoolyard is shattered one autumn day by gunfire. No children are hurt, but a sniper is shot down - and psychologist Dr Alex Delaware is called in to help the kids cope with the trauma. Then comes another stunning surprise: the identity of the sniper. And Delaware is intrigued by the chance to explore intimately the forces that created such a twisted personality.

George Beattie's flowershop in Shields is home for his tight-knit family, but for his granddaughter, Francis Lidell, it's only a prison. Haunted by her family's past, she dreams of escape....Dreams come true when Jack Scott asks her to join his music hall act. Frances runs away with him, relishing the Bohemian life. But inevitably, married, and carrying Jack's child, her fate is to be brought home again to her roots, and to the net of the whispering past which closes around her.

In turn-of-the-century Tyneside, money doesn't grow on trees. With Ma dead, Da often at sea and sister Fanny getting into trouble with the lads, Jane Ridley's life isn't easy. Beautiful, innocent, uncertain of the future, Jane wants more than marriage and countless children. So she takes a job in George Beattie's flower shop, cared for by his gentle wife Adeline. Torn between affections for the shy Ronnie Wilson, and the more exciting advances of Jack Purvis, Jane is forced to grow up overnight when the conflict ends in tragedy....