This series is about two children who are the wards of a cantankerously un-loving uncle. That uncle owns a rug factory that has the typically brutal working conditions of the time that both poor adult and child labourers have to survive. Life is hardly perfect, but things take a turn for the worst when the Uncle, maddened by the fear of bill and tax collectors, sets fire to his own home to prevent its seizure and dies in the process. This leaves the children with no home or guardian. Now the two must struggle to survive on the streets of London, where they learn that there difficult ways of making a living and help is where they least expect it.