Stoke on Trent, 1974 - Amidst power cuts, strikes and boot-boy aggro on the football terraces, restless JOE MCCAIN (MARTIN COMPSTON), is bored with the flatline tedium of a life thats going nowhere. He trudges through his Monday to Friday delivery van job, while pulling off some petty theft with his partner in crime and best friend RUSS MOUNTJOY (ALFIE ALLEN). Enter trainee hair-dresser JANE (NICHOLA BURLEY). Blonde, brassy, and moving to the beat of a music that opens the door to a whole new world of sound, movement and allnighter dancing at The Wigan Casino - the home of Northern Soul! Joe persuades Russ to go with him to check it out. Once there, Joe is seduced by the music, the dancing, the drugs and Jane. He strikes up a friendship with MANDY (FELICITY JONES) a cute and spunky artist who is eager to help Joe become the cool soul boy he wants to be. She helps him learn the all important dance moves and a friendship quickly develops as she encourages him to open up and grow. Mandy falls for Joe who is swept along on this tide of pulsating dance and lust, finally finding somewhere he belongs. As Joe falls deeper and deeper into the Northern Soul scene, his new paradise is threatened by Janes drug dealing boyfriend ALAN (CRAIG PARKINSON) and a crumbling friendship with Russ. A love triangle develops with Jane and Mandy, and Joe has to decide who he really wants in his life.