Deze serie volgt de levens van de familie Hollis terwijl ze de uitdagingen en transformaties van Groot-Brittannië na de oorlog doorkruisen. Elke aflevering biedt een inkijkje in hun persoonlijke dromen, worstelingen en aspiraties om hun plek te vinden in een wereld die zich herstelt van oorlogsschade. De verhalen verkennen thema's als ambitie, klassenverschillen en het nastreven van vervulling, zowel in de kunst als in het dagelijks leven. Het is een aangrijpende verkenning van familiebanden en de veerkrachtige menselijke geest tegenover tegenspoed.
As an evacuee, Ralph received a good education, but after the war Ralph's working-class father resents his education and his ambition to be an actor, and is furious when Ralph is sacked from the paper mill. The story traces Ralph's struggle to reconcile the disparate strands of his life.
The war is over but Elsie is still fighting her own battles. She's bullied because she's the only scholarship pupil at the grammar school, and she has an awkward relationship with her father as he struggles to assume a normal life after fighting in the war. But when she begins working at the local theatre, Elsie discovers she can escape.
Henry misses his father who died a war hero. One day Mrs Beaumont lends Henry a camera for his school project. Henry is disgusted that he's been put in a group with Jeffries, the son of a man who went AWOL, and Pip, who was born illegitimate; but he's about to learn that tolerance and friendship are more important than social stigmas.