Plot

In 1939 England, a textbook writer's loveless marriage faces new challenges when his former love returns to town with her husband. As WWII erupts, his kindness toward a girl sparks rumors, while the war's impact reaches their community.

It's 1939 in the small English town of Penny Green, and events in Poland are about to change lives. Mark Sabre (Walter Pidgeon), a writer of school text books, has married Mabel (Dame Angela Lansbury) "on the rebound", after his real love Nona (Deborah Kerr) marries some one else. Just as war is about to break out, Nona returns home with husband Tony (Hugh French). Mable is sure she can hold onto Mark, though. But misunderstood good deeds on Mark's part turn life for him upside down when his relationship with a young girl starts tongues wagging. Soon, wartime casualties take their toll in Penny Green as well as on the front, as the death of fighting men affects lives back home.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

It's the late 1930s in the small community of Penny Green, a commuter suburb of London. Textbook writer Mark Sabre is a compassionate man looking out for those in need. His stern, humorless wife Mabel believes her sole purpose in his life is to manage it to ensure that he and by association they progress upward through society. Mabel believes but doesn't care that Mark married her on the rebound when his former girlfriend, Nona, left him to marry someone else in the pursuit of a more exciting life, Nona now world traveling Mrs. Tony Tyber. While Mark has a group of devoted friends, many, including Mabel, don't like aspects of his being, Mabel who objects to his over familiarity with especially their servants, and his boss, Mr. Fortune, who believes his views are too liberal which he inserts into his writings. What Fortune has not told Mark is despite his financial stake in the company, he will not only never promote Mark to partner, which is what Mark is working toward, but would like to terminate him, virtually impossible under the terms of his contract. When Nona and Tony return to Penny Green, Mabel is not overly concerned as she knows Mark's character would not allow him to start up with her even if he did still love her. However in aiding Fortune, newly minted publishing house partner Mr. Twyning believes that Nona's return and even Mark being overly friendly with her may be grounds for his dismissal under a morals clause in his contract. Indeed, Mark still does love Nona, and Nona, who convinced Tony to return to Penny Green in discovering she really did not want that world traveling life, still loves Mark, but both realize that they cannot either leave their respective spouse or have a clandestine affair. With the onset of WWII, Mark's compassion in general however may nonetheless be his downfall both at work and at home as he comes to the aid of young Effie Bright, who is disowned by her devout father when she becomes pregnant out of wedlock, with many in town mistakenly believing Mark the father, with the real father, whose identity Mark does not know, an enlisted man, the son of a prominent townsperson who has had it out for Mark.—Huggo