Alf and his family have been moved from their East End home into a high-rise council estate. Alf is not only having trouble coping with his new 'home', but also with the long commute to work, the long walk to the corner pub, his long-suffering wife Else, rebellious daughter Rita, and her philandering, constantly unemployed husband Mike.

Kevin O'Grady goes for a job at the Lillicrap Novelty Company and is the subject of bigotry among the workers - not because he is Irish but because he is a Pakistani with an Irish father. The token black man at the firm does not like Pakistanis and the two Scousers are extremely colour prejudiced but Arthur Blenkinsop,the liberal foreman.takes him on and fixes him up with lodgings with Mrs Barok. He also buys Kevin a pint of Guinness but because it is black it is not well-received.

Britain's biggest pop singer, Steven Shorter, receives unwavering adulation and possesses total control over his rabid fans, which includes nearly the entire population. Yet Shorter is not an autonomous performer -- he is little more than a puppet for the government, promoting whatever agenda they see fit. When a beautiful artist, Vanessa Ritchie, is commissioned to paint his portrait, she pushes Shorter to question his obedience to his manipulative handlers.