A Kind of Life

Two teenage runaways find love and intrigue in 1980s London

Ree Lovell plans her escape from her abusive stepfather and rents a room from Alan "Pixie" Dixon, a transvestite prostitute with a heart of gold. Soon Ree meets Gavin, who ran away from an alcoholic father on the spur of the moment and lived rough for a while, but who now has his own place and works in a café across the road from Pixie's house. Everything seems perfect until Pixie's lover, Colin, a high-ranking police officer, is blackmailed by a vengeful career criminal who stumbles upon his nemesis' weakness by chance. Colin and Pixie's plan to thwart their blackmailer fails miserably and sees pregnant Ree in prison awaiting trial, Colin in a coma, and Colin's wife determined to unmask her husband's lover, keep his share of the house, and spend his police pension.