It's 1945 and Corporal Harvey Moon (Kenneth Cranham) is demobbed and returns home to London's East End. Everyone believed that the former Clapton Orient footballer had been killed in action so plenty has been going on in his absence: his wife Rita (Maggie Steed) has been making a succession of American GIs feel at home; his daughter Maggie (Linda Robson) has grown up into a young woman who is more than capable of taking care of herself; and his son Stanley (Lee Whitlock) is under the misguided illusion that his Dad was a heroic secret service agent - and on top of all this, his home has been reduced to rubble.