 Mrs and Mrs Cooper are staying at a boarding-house in the seaside resort of Morecambe with their small children, Colin and Jennifer. Mr Cooper has just been made redundant, but the family are trying to keep this a secret from the other guests. Also staying at the hotel are Keith and Jo, a young couple on their honeymoon, and an older couple, Mr and Mrs Thornton. Waking early one morning, Colin amuses himself by dangling one of his sister s sandals out of the window on a piece of string. The sandal accidentally lands on a flat roof just outside the window of the honeymooning couple, and his father s now straitened financial circumstances mean Colin has to get it back, by fair means or foul.