A gang war is raging through the dark, seedy underworld of Brighton.
Pinkie, fighting for leadership, is only 17 yet he has already proved his ruthlessness in the brutal killing of Hale, a journalist. Untouched by human feeling, Pinkie is isolated from the rest of the world, a figure of pure evil. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold, who is determined to avenge Hale's death.
Graham Greene's gripping thriller exposes a world of loneliness, pain and fear, of life lived on "the dangerous edge of things". It was brilliantly re-enacted on film, with Graham Greene writing the screenplay and Richard Attenborough in a tour de force role as Pinkie.