'D' is a chronicler of a society in chaos, who looks down on the marauding gangs, and rubbish-strewn streets from the fortress prison of her flat. Buffeted by inner dreams and longings, D finds an alternative world by stepping through the wall of her flat, like Alice through the Looking Glass. Here it is Victorian England, the bosom of an unsettled family, harbingers, perhaps, of the decay to come. She flits between the two sides of her double life, always observing, never participating, and watches as her protégé, Emily, becomes involved with vagrants' leader Gerald and their efforts to control the violent scavengers fail.