In the wake of the financial crisis, literature graduate Tina (Teresa Daley) struggles to find work after moving to London from her native Taiwan to be with her British boyfriend, Frank (Joshua Whitehouse). As a stopgap she takes a job as a receptionist in a massage parlour, gaining first-hand insight into the horrors of the sex industry. There’s selfish mamasan Lily (Sophie Gopsill); sultry, blond-haired student Mei (Amanda Fan); and single mother Sasa (Shiang-chyi Chen), hardened by years of punishing sex work. When shy new girl Anna (Shuang Teng) turns up intending to earn quick cash to pay off a family debt, she’s totally out of her depth.

Taiwan-born, UK-based writer-director Jenny Lu’s script is functional, with leaden dialogue and plotting that tells rather than reveals. Yet the performances are painfully alive, with scenarios that show the hostility, racism, fetishisation and degradation experienced by immigrant women in particular (in one scene, one of the women is forced to her knees and likened to “a proper little greyhound”). Abortions are had, women are raped and brutalised; the film is designed to upset and it succeeds.

What’s particularly interesting is the film’s rejection of the idea of the UK as a haven for immigrants. “If earthworms leave the ground for too long, they die,” says Sasa – a metaphor that suggests those who leave their home will always feel displaced.