Four boys aged between 11 and 14. The landmarks of their world are the lingering slums of yesterday, new blocks of flats that aren't being built quickly enough, the warehouses and docks along the river in London's East End. Already they have fallen foul of the law for truancy or stealing-or both. They're in trouble and they're aware of it, but it hasn't dimmed the vitality and optimism of boyhood. There are people who care about them: probation officers, social workers, schoolteachers. But in the end they may be powerless.