Plot Summary

In 1928 London, milkman Ernest Briggs courts and marries housemaid Ethel; their son Raymond is born in 1934. When World War II breaks out Ethel tearfully allows him to be evacuated to aunts in Dorset while Ernest joins the fire service, shocked by the carnage he sees. As hostilities end they celebrate Raymond's return and entry to grammar school, and the birth of the welfare state though Ethel is mistrustful of socialism and progress in general. Raymond himself progresses from National Service to art college and a teaching post, worrying his mother by marrying schizophrenic Jean. Father and son console each other as Ethel slips away, but before long Raymond is mourning his father too, though both Ethel and Ernest will forever be immortalized by Raymond's touching account of their lives.