The Royal Oak Pub on Columbia Road E2, 1941. Lil and Maisie, two of the area’s most colourful inhabitants, and their band of mismatched friends muddle through the second world war and the years that follow in their own irreverent way. As Maisie is enlisted into the army, Lil is left in London to keep a motherly eye on the other local misfits, who include a local prostitute, a petty criminal and the owners of the local pub.