It's 1975 in the heart of London's East End. John is football-mad, streetwise and celebrating the Hammers' victory over Fulham in the Cup Final when Kenny, the strange and seemingly unfathomable boy from the new house across the street, tumbles through the door having suffered a very different kind of beating.

When the new school year begins, John befriends Kenny and stands up for him against the ridicule of their classmates. But Kenny is no ordinary boy. Cold, mysterious and at times frightening, he draws John into a friendship where nothing is ever quite straightforward.

As the turbulent years of late-seventies London unfold, the lives of the two boys spiral in unexpected directions. Years later, they meet again, but this time Kenny is being hunted by local villain Ronnie Swordfish. With a three-foot Samurai sword waiting to be drawn and Ronnie determined to settle the score, John can only watch as events move towards a violent confrontation.

Abide with Me is a story of football, friendship and hope, set against the darker world of London's gangland. It follows two boys who walk blindly into the darkness and discover what it takes to emerge as men.