Cette série relate les vies de la famille Hollis alors qu'elle navigue à travers les défis et les transformations de la Grande-Bretagne d'après-guerre. Chaque volet offre un aperçu de leurs rêves personnels, de leurs luttes et de leurs aspirations à trouver leur place dans un monde en reconstruction après la dévastation de la guerre. Les récits explorent les thèmes de l'ambition, des disparités de classe et de la quête d'épanouissement tant dans les arts que dans la vie quotidienne. C'est une exploration poignante des liens familiaux et de l'esprit humain résilient face à l'adversité.
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.