According to her best mate, EMMA is ‘one of the most lovely, genuine people ever.’ According to pretty much everyone else, Emma is ‘a slag’. The name calling has pretty much driven her out of school. Instead, she spends her time trying to hold her home together: cleaning, making sure bills get paid, keeping social workers at bay and trying to stop her little brother, JACKSON, going off the rails. All the stuff her mum is too pissed to manage.
 Emma has to go to school for a meeting about her attendance. As she walks through the gates, some boys shout all the usual stuff at her: slut, whore, sket …. That is, until a fit older guy appears and sends them packing. Emma wonders if he’s a new teacher, but hurries off, embarrassed.
Emma’s mum doesn’t show to the meeting, as usual, so it’s Emma, the deputy head and a social worker. Then the fit older guy walks in. He turns out to be Emma’s new attendance officer, SCOTT. It’s decided that Emma can go to college full-time to do a motor vehicle maintenance course. Excited, she rushes home to get Mum sober enough to sign the permission forms.
Emma loves the college course. She’s good at it and the boys there don’t call her names. She has a meeting with Scott. He’s different from the other workers; down to earth. Afterwards, they keep texting. Scott admits he likes talking to her and has been checking his work phone out of hours. Emma’s not sure if he likes her in that way, though. After all, he’s married.
 Emma bunks off one day with a boy from college. They have sex and he talks her into letting him take nude photos of her, telling her she’s beautiful and the photos are art. Emma later finds out he’s shown the photos to half their class. She stops attending and is too ashamed to reply to any more of Scott’s texts.
Scott visits Emma at home. She cries and tells him everything. He persuades her to go back to the course; she should follow her passion and not let a bunch of immature boys hold her back.
Jackson gets into trouble for throwing a chair at one of his teachers. There is talk of him being sent to a residential special school. Scott works with Jackson too and Emma begs him not to let her brother get sent away.
One night, a tipsy Scott texts Emma and asks her to meet him. He tells her his marriage is going downhill. His wife is a police officer who works long hours; they barely see each other and she’s changed since she had a miscarriage last year. He admits to Emma that he can’t stop thinking about her. They end up kissing. Things develop into a proper affair. Emma doesn’t feel used like she normally does; she feels special.
During half term, Scott and Emma go to the seaside, thinking they won’t have to hide there. Then at lunchtime, Scott spots the school headteacher walking into their restaurant. Emma runs to the toilets to hide, finds a fire exit and sneaks out. Afterwards, Scott is visibly shaken and tells Emma maybe they should stop seeing each other. Emma is terrified of losing him. They agree to carry on, but to be more careful.
 It’s Jackson’s 13th birthday. Mum doesn’t do much to make their birthdays special (if she remembers), so Emma invites some of Jackson’s friends over for a get-together. Scott takes Emma to buy Jackson presents, a cake and some balloons. The day goes really well. Emma calls Scott and thanks him; tells him that she loves him and this is the happiest she’s been for ages. Then in the middle of the party, the police arrive. Jackson is arrested for assaulting someone with a weapon.
Jackson is put in a secure unit until his court date. He tells Emma he was there when the attack happened, but it wasn’t him. Another boy filmed the attack on his phone, which the police took at the scene.
Emma heads for the police station to find out what’s going on. On the way there, Scott rings her from a phone box. He tells her his wife has found out about the affair. What’s more, she’s pregnant. Scott says they can’t talk for a while, but he’ll be in touch when things calm down. He tells Emma she needs to be strong for her brother and hangs up.
Emma somehow pulls it together and goes to police station. She demands to speak to one of the officers who was there after the attack. A female police officer, PC Kaye, takes Emma into an interview room. PC Kaye is unsympathetic and denies all knowledge of any mobile phone footage. As she shows Emma out, she stares hard at her, stating she believes Emma knows her husband, Scott.  Emma runs all the way home and bursts in, crying hysterically. Mum is lying on the floor, pissed. Emma calls Scott and leaves several messages. Does he know that Jackson is in prison because of his wife? She begs him to come over before she does something stupid. Then she necks some of Mum’s vodka and smashes the house up. The doorbell goes and Emma runs to answer it, thinking it might be Scott. It’s the social worker and her form tutor. Emma sinks to the floor, sobbing, still clutching the bottle of vodka. The social worker walks past her, seeing the smashed up house and her semi-conscious mum.
 Jackson is released, after mobile phone footage turns up proving the attack was committed by another boy. Scott’s wife must have had a change of heart.
 Emma and Jackson are in a cab on their way to their new foster home, out of London. They’ve met the family, who seem really nice. Emma is older and wiser, and after everything, the siblings are both looking forward to a new start.