It's early morning and Meanwhile Street thinks it's waking to a regular Wednesday in May. Soon a disconcerting sound alerts Maggie and Gordon that something's not right. Throughout the day neighbours bear witness to a series of apparently unrelated incidents that, by midnight, leave a solitary fifteen-year-old running for his life and a Polish girl preparing to flee London for good.

It is Thursday before anyone knows that events have culminated in a single, heart-wrenching tragedy. In the aftermath, kids and adults from all backgrounds are forced across their thresholds to confront one another and the community they share. Love and trust, courage and cowardice, hope and despair, are all challenged, with some extraordinary and surprising consequences.