Bill Chivers is an ex-convict who having learnt bakery in prison is determined to "go straight". Helping Chivers at the bakery is a motley crew consisting of Vanda, an illegally employed Romanian who is a better baker than her boss; Scottish Tom, a confused man prone to boasting that he 'was once the shortest man ever to work for British Rail'; and Courtney.

Much of the action centres around the visitors to the bakers, they include Clare, a wheelchair-bound crime writer; Wally, a shady mini-cab driver; Terry, a stripper; and coppers PC Digby and WPC Jackson.