'When Barney O'Dowd starts work in post-war Sydney, he finds it a very lonely place. His parents are dead, and soon his dreams centre on the girl he sees each morning passing the window of his bed sitting room on her way to work. How he gets to know Nancy and the story of their courtship and marriage is only part of Barney's apprenticeship in living. There is also the world of the factory, often rough and cruel but with a fine sense of comradeship. This novel ... is about the lives of ordinary people. In the course of it Barney and Nancy grow up to face responsibility and to experience both the joys and tragedies of life, and to learn to have the courage to go on, whatever may happen.' (Source: 1965 Angus and Robertson edition)
