The story of kids 'discovering life' in the mid-1950s, told through the eyes of Mick, a member of a gang of six boys.
Coronation Day, 1953. Fourteen year old Mick, in love with Patsy but too shy to make contact with her, finds out, through his gang's discovery of an unexploded bomb, that she is keen to become his 'girl'. Unfortunately, Patsy has to go on a three week family holiday before their romance can begin. In the meantime Mick and his five friends expand their normal playtime interests- fishing, playing football, climbing, flying home-made kites, manufacturing explosives and tying 'booby trap' grass knots on the North Downs- by taking to ogling girls and spying on courting couples. Mick has to deal with death for the first time when Bernie, one of the gang members, dies; Mick also finds himself propositioned by two local girls just prior to Patsy's return. They date. The gang breaks up. All the youngsters have now moved out of childhood innocence and on into early adulthood. The days of tying grass knots on The Downs are over...