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...

Vera Drake, is one of the kindest, most selfless individuals any right thinking person could hope to meet, the mother of two grown up children, the wife of a loving husband, she works as a cleaner and is the epitome of a warm hearted decency. Vera is not just devoted to her family however, in the little spare time available to her she helps young girls terminate unwanted pregnancies and, though she takes no payment, this is 1950s Britain and the consequences for her actions, should she be discov find out more...