Rada Smith wakes up one morning to find her mother lying on the sofa. Some people come and take them both away. Rada is taken to the aunt she never knew she had on the edges of London. Milton Road is like another world from the inner-city life she has only ever known.
Very soon after she arrives, she encounters the Wallace family, a notoriously fascist crime gang who have controlled the area for decades. A child is found dead in the park at the end of Milton Road and being the only the newcomer on the street, the locals quickly point their fingers at her.
She tries to anchor herself and find answers as she watches those around her unravelling in a maelstrom of accusations and violence. She clings to the hope she sees living in the small slice of nature, the big old oak tree, that sits outside her bedroom window and has stood taller for longer than all of those living beneath its canopy.