On the silvery sands of West Wick, in Suffolk, just before her sixteenth birthday, Young May Moon, as she is known to family and friends, fulfils the promise made to her late father and becomes the Punch and Judy lady. Assisted by her younger sister, Pomona, Young May Moon discovers that performing is in her blood, as four years earlier, from this same place, their fiery mother Carmen, a flamenco dancer, absconded with the preacher from the rival entertainment. The girls are befriended by the O'Flaherty family, also lodging at The Swan and May experiences first love and the pain of parting...