Aspiring musician, Billy, grows up in the slums of 1960s Liverpool dreaming of stardom. To make ends meet, he goes away to sea. But hopes fade when he gets a girl pregnant and is forced into a shotgun marriage.
 
Their loveless union fractures when Billy is sentenced to prison for assault when he finds his new wife with an old school friend.
 
After serving his sentence, Billy is encouraged by his glamorous gangster cousin, Duke, to return to music. Success and love loom at his fingertips, but danger is lurking around the corner. Sucked into a violent confrontation, not of his making, Billy commits a crime the consequences of which reach across the decades.
 
This is a ballad of excess, success, and the pursuit of power.