Robert Tucker, a pupil at a Catholic boys' school in Liverpool, is bullied and taunted by older boys just as, between prayers and lessons, all the boys are bullied, taunted and beaten by their teachers.

Returning home from school one day, Robert sees his sick father writhing in agony on the floor and being injected with painkiller. Seeing the boy watching, his father shouts at him, and Robert runs upstairs, wishing his father dead. On another occasion, he hears his father beating his mother.

Some time later, Robert witnesses his father receiving the last rites and his body being laid out. Neighbours call to view the body, but Robert is frightened of it. After the funeral, friends and relatives gather at the house. As they sing 'Barbara Allen', Robert weeps for his dead father.

Intercut with the story of Robert's childhood are scenes from his adolescence: a visit to a doctor who is treating him for depression and who asks if he has a girlfriend, a sexual encounter with a man.