[1][2] Set in the city of Glasgow, the series is centred on 17-year-old Maggie McKinley (played by Kirsty Miller) from a council flat in a high-rise tower block whose family has been uprooted for generations, beginning with the Highland Clearances.

Maggie experiences the tribulations of adolescence as she aspires to further her education at university, a career and an independent life, while also struggling to better her family's economic situation.

Maggie's parents (Michael Sheard and Mary Riggans) expect her to take a secure working-class job, get married and "settle down".

Maggie sorts through her feelings for both local boy Mike (Joe Mullaney), and James (Ian Michie), a comfortably middle-class Edinburgh student.

Much of the series also centres on Maggie's relationship with her feisty octogenarian grandmother (Jean Faulds) who lives in rural Inverness-shire, and who frequently acts as an important confidante to her granddaughter.