Innocent Sinners

Olivia Chesney, though bedridden, leans from her window and waves to the neighbors in a post-war London square. The small gesture introduces the community network that will later intersect with Lovejoy’s world. This moment sets the tone for a story of resilience amid hardship.

Lovejoy, a neglected girl, begins a secret garden on a bomb site. She buys grass seed with borrowed money and fashions a protective net from a baby's pram. This early act marks her determination to nurture life in a bleak landscape.

To buy a garden fork, Lovejoy steals money from a church candle box. The act signals the clever, risky means she uses to sustain her garden project. It foreshadows the tensions she will face with the adults around her.

Lovejoy is looked after by the Vincents, who run a posh restaurant and treat her with kindness. Her mother, an actress, is away on tour and maintains a lifestyle with male callers. This arrangement establishes a fragile family dynamic around Lovejoy.

Mr Vincent is unhappy with Lovejoy's mother's lifestyle and asks her to leave. The tension between care and propriety strains their living arrangement. The request signals growing strain in the adults' world surrounding Lovejoy.

A gang of young boys destroys Lovejoy's garden. Tip returns her garden fork and suggests moving to a bombed-out church as a better site. They become friends, and Tip makes her pay 'penance' for stealing money from the church.

A wealthy couple with plans for the bombed church visit Lovejoy. The woman gives Lovejoy a shilling in the church, and Lovejoy deposits it into the candle box as part of her penance. Later, they visit Vincent's restaurant, give her a ride in their car, and present her with a miniature rose to plant in her garden.

An old man gives Lovejoy some seedlings as it becomes too late to plant. Tip steals earth from a private garden square, much to the annoyance of the adults. The actions keep blurring the line between innocence and theft in Lovejoy's world.

On a rainy night, Tip brings Lovejoy and Sparkey to the park to steal more earth. Lovejoy is arrested along with the boys. The police reveal they know her mother is away in Canada and has remarried, with no plans for Lovejoy to follow.

The Vincents fall into serious financial trouble and have to give Lovejoy away to the Home of Compassion care home. Lovejoy's future becomes uncertain as the adults debate her fate. The real-world pressures threaten the fragile family that sheltered her.

Lovejoy appeals to Olivia Chesney to help rescue her situation. Olivia, who feels she has wasted her life, resolves to act by writing a will that would set up a trust to open a new restaurant in the West End, run by the Vincents, contingent on their caretaking of Lovejoy.

The bombed church is pulled down, and Lovejoy leaves the care home to rescue her rose from the site. The act symbolizes her attachment to the garden and her resilience. The garden's legacy becomes tied to Olivia's influence.

Olivia Chesney dies before signing the will that would set up the trust. Angela, Olivia's sister, inherits Olivia's money. Lovejoy leaves the rose at Olivia's house, not knowing of Olivia's death.

Angela is moved by Olivia's death and decides to proceed with her sister's wishes for the trust. She acts to ensure the plan to open the new restaurant and to look after Lovejoy proceeds.

Lovejoy goes to live with the Vincents again, and they begin preparing for the new West End restaurant. Angela's commitment makes the dream feasible, and Lovejoy's presence helps the Vincents move forward.