Jess Thomas and her business partner, Nathalie Benson, are parked in their cleaning van, lamenting the loss of a regular client. Jess inadvertently exposed the client’s husband’s affair after finding a diamond earring while cleaning the house, so she doesn’t expect that the humiliated wife would want her to come back. Most of their business in their seaside town comes from the Beachfront development that has holiday homes for wealthy visitors. Clients in their rundown town are scarce, which is why Jess and Nathalie constantly worry about their livelihoods. Now, they have one client less.

At home, Jess finds Nicky, her 16-year-old stepson, with a fresh injury from a bully named Jason Fisher. Nicky dresses and styles himself in goth fashion, which makes him a target for neighborhood bullies, especially a family called the Fishers. Jess tries to reassure him, even though she feels powerless to protect him.

Soon after, her 10-year-old daughter Tanzie’s math teacher, Mr. Tsvangarai, calls. He informs Jess that Tanzie’s exceptional exam results have qualified her for a scholarship interview at the prestigious St. Anne’s private school. Jess is thrilled but immediately calculates how impossible the fees will be, given her precarious finances.

Jess and Tanzie attend the scholarship interview at St. Anne’s. The headmaster and head of mathematics are impressed with Tanzie’s abilities and offer her a 90% scholarship, but the remaining fees are still beyond Jess’s means.

Later, Tanzie overhears Jess on a video call with Marty, her estranged husband and Nicky and Tanzie’s father. Jess asks him for financial help for Tanzie’s schooling, but Marty refuses. He left the family almost a year ago, claiming mental illness, and he says he went to live with his mother in Scotland. However, when Jess calls him, she notices that there is unfamiliar wallpaper behind him, and he claims that his mother redecorated. Though Marty is proud that Tanzie is doing well in school, he says that he is still unemployed and can’t send them the money. When Jess asks if she can talk to his mother to ask for her help, Marty refuses. He also declines to let her sell the Rolls-Royce he left behind, saying that he can use it for work as a wedding chauffeur when he returns. After the call, a disheartened Jess tells Nicky that they should start playing the lottery.

Flashbacks reveal the events leading to Ed’s suspension from his company. Months earlier, Deanna, an acquaintance from his university days, got in touch with him after the end of his marriage with Lara, an Italian actress who got half of his fortune after their divorce. He and Deanna began a torrid affair. Back at university, Ed had felt intimidated by her beauty and confidence, and he was flattered that she started to give him attention. However, she gradually began to demand too much of his time and attention and confessed that she was in debt. Feeling smothered, Ed gave her a check—saying the money was a loan—and gave her a tip to invest the money in his company as their upcoming product would be a sure success. He hoped this would get her to leave him alone. However, Deanna’s brother used the information to trade options and earn an immense profit, which attracted the attention of the Financial Services Authority. Ed distanced himself from Deanna, but he was accused of insider trading because of the profits that she and her brother made.

Hiding at his holiday Beachfront home, Ed receives advice from his lawyer to maintain a low profile. He feels isolated and misunderstood as his sister, Gemma, pressures him to visit their ill father. He doesn’t tell her about his legal troubles, and she assumes that he is too self-involved to visit.

Jess and Nathalie clean Ed’s vacation house on a regular basis. They realize he is home this time when they overhear him on an angry phone call, and he slams the door on Jess’s face when she approaches his office. However, she is desperate for money and confronts him about his overdue cleaning fees. When he says that he doesn’t have the cash on him and will pay her later, she insists that he pay them now. Ed goes to his room and returns with some money, and he then hurries off to take another phone call.

At home, Nicky tells Jess that Tanzie is being teased for her unfashionable clothes. Desperate to stop this, Jess uses the money she had kept aside to pay her bills to buy Tanzie a branded outfit from a local woman who sells stolen goods. This interaction causes Jess to feel the weight of her financial troubles. Before leaving to work her shift at the local pub, she affectionately teases Nicky, wishing that she had more time to spend with her children and worrying about him being bullied.

After Jess leaves for work, Nicky is overwhelmed with anger at his father’s absence and lack of support.

During her shift at The Feathers pub, Jess’s friend Liam Stubbs, a taxi driver, stops by and flirts with her. Jess recognizes a heavily intoxicated Ed drinking at the bar. When it’s closing time, she refuses to serve him more alcohol and confiscates his car keys when she sees that he plans to drive home. Instead, she asks Liam to take her and Ed to Ed’s home.

In the taxi, Ed is unconscious, and Jess receives a text from her neighbor, Belinda, that Nicky has been attacked by the Fishers, and her husband Nigel took him to the hospital. Jess and Liam get Ed into his house, and Liam rushes Jess to the hospital. Nigel explains that Nicky is injured but stable, and Jess rushes in to see him. Nicky has a black eye and a battered face, but he doesn’t want to get the police involved since they never take any action against the Fishers. Jess heads back to Liam’s taxi to grab her purse and coat, and she discovers a roll of cash totaling £480 and a security card on the taxi’s floor that fell from Ed’s pocket. She slips both into her purse.

The day after the attack, Jess confronts the bully’s mother, Leanne Fisher, but the encounter ends with Leanne threatening her. The police later inform Jess they cannot press charges. Meanwhile, Mr. Tsvangarai calls to inform her about a Math Olympiad in Scotland with a £5,000 grand prize. He is confident that Tanzie has a good chance of winning, and Jess realizes she can use this money to pay the St. Anne’s fees.

Facing the St. Anne’s registration deadline, Jess uses Ed’s £480 she found on the taxi’s floor to pay the school deposit, telling herself she will repay Ed. After another frustrating call with Marty, who blames the way Nicky dresses for the attack, she hangs up. Determined to win the Math Olympiad prize money, Jess decides to drive Marty’s untaxed and uninsured Rolls-Royce to Scotland since she can’t afford the train fare to take Tanzie there.

Ed meets with his lawyer, Paul Wilkes, who confirms that criminal charges are likely. He learns that the police now have incriminating emails between Ed and Deanna. Ed then attempts to contact Deanna and fails. Driving back to his vacation house, he reaches out to his friend and business partner, Ronan, who feels betrayed by Ed and ends their call.

His ex-wife, Lara, calls asking for money, adding to his stress. Afterward, his sister Gemma calls, once again chastising him for not visiting their sick father, who keeps asking to see Ed.

Frustrated and driving aimlessly, Ed is stunned to see a broken-down Rolls-Royce surrounded by police. He recognizes his cleaner, Jess, on the roadside with her children and their large dog. Remembering her kindness at the pub, Ed turns his car around to offer help.