Martin Clunes stars as an earnest Latin master working at the Brookfield School of the 1880s, where he meets and marries his true love Kathie and finds himself touched by politics, grief and the utter devastation of World War One. Charting more than 50 years of one man's extraordinary life, the story ends in the 1930s, as a wise, elderly and much-loved Mr Chipping lives out his last days in retirement.