Down Stepney Way - Sally Worboyes

Emotions are running high in Stepney, with Blackshirts marching through the streets and the Jewish community under threat of violence. Jessie finds it alarming, particularly as her boyfriend Max is Jewish, but she is quickly learning that nothing is simple. Discovering a family secret, Jessie turns to her mother for answers, but Rose is reluctant to reveal the past - for there is something that Jessie must never know.

In Bethnal Green, Rose's old friend Emmie is giving love and support to Hannah Blake, who is being forced by her cold-hearted mother to don the uniform and join the Blackshirts, despite her deep misgivings. Emmie is aware of the darkness surrounding Hannah's own wretched past, but is bound by a vow of silence not to reveal what she knows.

And meanwhile, Emmie's son Tom, chipper and handsome, has just fallen for a blonde girl he wants to bring home to meet Emmie and Hannah. Her name is Jessie Warner...