Director Karel Reisz's adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's novel about a hard-living factory worker and the married woman he seduces. Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney) is an angry young man working in the tough environment of a Nottingham factory, he compensates for the drudgery and discipline of his weekday life with weekends spent drinking and womanising. While pursuing Doreen (Shirley Anne Field), he is conducting an affair with a fellow factory worker's wife, Brenda (Rachel Roberts), who informs him that she is pregnant with his child. With abortion illegal at the time, Arthur and Brenda face a difficult dilemma. Will Arthur face up to the kind of domestic responsibilities he openly scorns in his own parents, or run harder than ever?