In this gripping drama, nineteen-year-old Joe Barley returns to England in the summer of 1984 having gone AWOL from the US Army. Desperate to start a new life and find peace of mind he moves to the picturesque Cotswold town of Westcombe where he finds accommodation in the mesmeric Hastings Cottage, a lodging house run by the benevolent Hazel. Upon befriending his dope-smoking fellow lodgers he soon becomes immersed in the local drug culture. Subsequently under the wing of local villain Chris Wetherly, Joe is absorbed into his mentor's local crime syndicate, a move which inadvertently changes the course of his life. All that remains is for Joe to relinquish his enemies and lay to rest his remaining demons as he bids an emotional farewell to his past. Only then will he be free to follow what he knows to be his true vocation in life.