Yorkshire. A young man, Vic Brown, is an usher at his sister's lavish church wedding. Old ladies talk of him being the next one to get married.

Vic is a draughtsman at an engineering firm in a Northern industrial town. In the works canteen, he and his mates look at nude pictures of women in a magazine. He catches the eye of Ingrid, a typist, on the other side of the room. On the bus home, Vic claims to have forgotten his fare and borrows the money from Ingrid. He walks her back to her street of semi-detached houses and they agree a date. He returns to his terraced home and his close-knit family. His younger brother Jimmy asks his advice about girls. When he admires the women in Vic's magazine Vic tells him that when it comes to marrying you want something different.

He and Ingrid go to the pictures. Ingrid talks about settling down. They kiss. Back at work Vic's mates mock him over Ingrid, who they consider to be an 'untouchable': unwilling to have sex.

Vic meets Ingrid again but she is with a friend, Dot. He shouts at Ingrid for bringing her before storming off. That Sunday he is with his family at his sister's new home when his brother passes him a note from Ingrid asking to meet. They rendezvous in a park where they embrace and he tells her he loves her.

Vic talks to his father about his ambitions for work and travel. His father encourages him to do it before he gets 'tied down'. Vic meets Ingrid in a café but is bored by her trivial conversation. She tells him that she loves him. On a hillside after a disappointing sexual encounter they discuss the possibility of full intercourse. Ingrid still seems unwilling.

At work, Vic prefers to sit with his mates rather than Ingrid. He goes to the pictures with his friend Jeff but Ingrid intercepts him on his way home and challenges him about his coldness, complaining that sometimes it's rotten being a girl.

At a football match, Jeff warns Vic off Ingrid and encourages him to play the field. Vic tries to buy contraceptives but is too embarrassed. He meets Ingrid in a rainstorm and they go to her house. She finds his magazine and shows her prudishness but Vic persuades her to have sex. Afterwards she panics about Vic's true feelings.

Some time later, Vic and Ingrid are both at the works social and are no longer involved. Ingrid tells Vic she is pregnant and he offers to marry her. She realises that he does not really want to but accepts. They marry in a registry office and Ingrid's mother shows her disapproval. On honeymoon in Southport, Ingrid has to be persuaded to make love.

When they return Vic moves in with Ingrid and her mother. Her mother makes her dislike of Vic clear and Vic despises her views and appetite for trivia. Ingrid sides with her mother and refuses to let Vic join his family at a brass band concert. He tells her that he regrets marrying her.

Vic comes home from work to find that Ingrid has fallen downstairs and is in hospital. Ingrid's mother did not let him know. Ingrid loses the baby. Vic shows little sympathy. He rows with her mother and storms out.

In the pub he meets a friend, Conroy, who tells him that he walked out on his wife. They go on a pub crawl and Vic returns home drunk. He rows with Ingrid's mother who tells him how much she hates him. When she refuses to let him see Ingrid, he packs and leaves.

He visits his family but they all tell him that he is married and has to fulfil his responsibilities. Vic goes back to Ingrid on condition they leave her mother's house and they agree to try and make things work, renting a run-down flat. They go to the park to make love. Ingrid worries about being caught until Vic reminds her that they are married.