What awful secrets did his Aunt Dolly's precious portrait conceal? Vinegar Lane - the London street in Bethnal Green where Jack Pudden, 10, the baker's son, lived, saw the murder on his doorstep, there followed a family funeral. Jack accepted both as the norm, but when his father announced he was getting married again, this he could not accept. Sarah moved in almost at once. Jack hated her on sight. But with six in the house, they had to get along. It was in the years of the Depression, death and disease crept hand in hand along the street. The bakery's trade was close to collapsing. Jobless marchers threatened their lives. But, in the misery of those times and personal shocks, Jack, who'd been apprenticed out, came through to take over the bakery, and fall in love. Suddenly the sun shone for him ... and along came the war. While Jack was away being a soldier, family skeletons emerged and other shocks touching on him. When Jack came home, with a VC, all the startling secrets were revealed.