It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

Sixty-two year old Walter Vale is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his wife and with it his passion for teaching and writing, he attempts to fill the void by failing miserably to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young immigrant couple has taken up residence in his apartment - victims of a rental scam. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him, a find out more...