Sally O'Neill has been cleaning the houses on Marlborough Road for so long that she almost feels like she lives there herself. There's Clare MacDonald with her huge, messy house and free-range children, resigned to looking after her family but harbouring secret dreams of going back to college; old Miss Black, with her endless stream of lodgers that includes the rather dishy actor Fintan, who watches the street's goings on from behind her lace net curtains, but is harbouring secrets of her own; and Saffron and Trevor, whose marriage has hit a rough patch. Sally is their confidante; she knows their secrets, hopes and dreams, and she dispenses advice to them all. And then there's Sally herself, who is so careful not to reveal too much of herself to her employers, but whose past is about to catch up with her ...