Hugh and Margaret Darcy are raising their family in Sydney amid the brothels, grog shops and run-down boarding houses of Surry Hills in the late 1950s, where money is scarce and life is not easy. At 12 and 1/2 Plymouth Street, their daughter Roie becomes a woman too quickly among the razor gangs and fish and chip shops; their younger daughter Dolour yearns for an education so she can get a good job and lift her family from poverty. This is a community brought to life and experienced by Ruth Park herself; when she and her husband Darcy Niland came to Sydney in the late 1940s, housing was scarce and all they could find was a rented room in a shared house. From here came the inspiration for this book. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/products/missus-ruth-park