Whitstable, a small seaside town in Kent, southern England, in the 1890s. Nan Astley works in her parents’ oyster parlour alongside her older sister, Alice. All the family love the music hall and it is here that Nan first encounters Kitty Butler, the woman who is to change her life. Kitty is a ‘masher’ (a pretty girl who dresses as a boy on stage) and Nan is immediately attracted to her.

Walter tells Nan that he and Kitty are to be married. Nan cannot believe that she has been betrayed in this way. When the tearful, guilty Kitty tries to reassure her that their relationship need not change, she angrily rejects her. She returns to the theatre to collect the money owed her and her masher costumes.

Diana catches Nan and Blake making love in bed and orders them to leave the house, immediately. Nan has to sell her costumes to give them a little money. In the morning Blake has disappeared along with their funds and Nan is now totally destitute.