- World War II vets travel to England for a reunion at their old base. Once there, one (Robert Mitchum) rekindles an old romance with an old flame (Deborah Kerr).
- A despondent, lonely, near-suicidal Chicago businessman and veteran WWII pilot is enticed to attend the 40th reunion of his old bombardment group in England. He briefly sets aside his recent professional and personal failures as he and an unlikely companion travel to Fairborough and renew old memories. The romantic promise of rediscovered love is intruded upon by modern realities as the drama unfolds.—Mark Rice
- Carl Hostrup (Robert Mitchum), an apparently successful businessman, returns alone to his high-rise Chicago condo and opens a beer. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he retrieves a revolver from his nightstand, loads one round, and starts to put the gun to his temple. He briefly hesitates and returns the gun to the drawer. Still shaken, he receives an unexpected phone call from an old acquaintance who wants to stop by. Hostrup tries to beg off but reluctantly agrees.
The visitor turns out to be an old war buddy, Nat Barsky (Barry Morse), who wants to invite him to an upcoming reunion of their 8th Air Force bombardment group in England. Barsky asks Hostrup to look up another old comrade, Jiggs Quealy (Red Buttons), who also lives in Chicago. Hostrup encounters an alcoholic, down-on-his-luck Quealy working as a janitor in a shabby rooming house. Hostrup treats an embarrassed Quealy to a good breakfast and pays to get him a haircut, a shave, and a suitable wardrobe. Quealy agrees to attend the reunion at Hostrup's expense.
The unlikely pair are next seen on a train speeding through the lush English countryside. The familiar scenery jogs Hostrup's memories of wartime England. Quealy expresses his fear of being exposed as a failure in front of the other prosperous veterans. Hostrup reassures him, saying that as far as he is concerned Jiggs is an independent contractor in the custodial services business. Arriving in town, the two men are greeted by a host of returning veterans. Hostrup unwisely leaves Jiggs to his own devices and ventures off on his own, hoping to resurrect his wartime memories. A nervous, out-of-place Jiggs wanders off on his own and enters a tavern. He orders a lemonade before giving in to his demons and switching to Scotch.
Meanwhile, Hostrup searches out the small cottage where his wartime lover had once lived. He encounters a pretty young English girl named Sheila (Judi Trott) in the garden and inquires about his old girlfriend, Sally Grant (Deborah Kerr). The girl explains that Sally indeed lives there but is at work in her shop, which is located in a nearby village. She offers to give Hostrup a lift. During the ride, the girl explains that Sally is her grandmother. They arrive at the shop and Sheila calls to her grandmother to come out from the storeroom and meet an old friend. Sally Grant emerges, sees Hostrup, and freezes as the emotions flood over her. Sheila instantly recognizes her grandmother's stunned reaction and asks, "Is he the one?" When Sally confirms that he is, Sheila looks at him and sarcastically exclaims, "Hello Granddad." Now it is Hostrup's turn to be stunned.
Meanwhile, an inebriated Jiggs Quealy has made a drunken nuisance of himself in the tavern and gets thrown out on the street. As evening approaches, Sally closes down the shop and goes for tea with Carl. He learns that the wartime daughter he fathered with Sally is dead, killed in a 1968 motorcycle accident along with her husband. Carl asks Sally why she had never bothered to track him down and reveal that they had a daughter together. Sally pointedly asks him what he realistically would have done about it. She then inquires about his life in America after the war. Hostrup explains that he was twice married but never had any children. Sally declines his dinner invitation but agrees to have him over for breakfast the following morning.
That night, Carl and another attendee retrieve Quealy from the local police station and help him to his room. While reminiscing with some other vets over drinks, Carl reveals that he was recently forced out of his lucrative executive job and that his wife had left him as soon as the big checks quit rolling in.
Hostrup walks to Sally's cottage for breakfast the following morning. When Sally leaves for work, Hostrup tags along with Sheila for a visit to the local headquarters of the nuclear disarmament group she volunteers with. She and Hostrup quickly spar over her naive pacifism and his self-assured belief in justified war. She explains that her group is preparing for an upcoming anti-nuke demonstration at a nearby air base.
In return for Hostrup's visit, Sheila reluctantly agrees to visit the old wartime airfield where Hostrup and his buddies had served. Hostrup, Nat Barsky, Sally and Sheila visit the old base as well as the American military cemetery at Cambridge. As the veterans pay homage to their fallen comrades, a solitary RAF Spitfire roars overhead. Even though the emotional experience softens Sheila somewhat, she still clings to her strident anti-Americanism. Back at Sally's cottage, Sheila once again blasts American "militarism" and Hostrup sternly rebukes her.
That evening, Sally attends the reunion dance party with Hostrup. Nat Barsky takes to the stage to deliver some impassioned remarks about the hundreds of young airmen from their group who failed to return from the war. After the dance, Hostrup talks Sally into spending the night with him. They discreetly take a taxi to a small inn in Cambridge, where a reflective Hostrup pours his heart out to Sally. She explains that they can't just pick up where they left off forty years ago.
The next morning, Hostrup drops in on an angry Sheila at the disarmament group HQ. She continues her anti-American diatribe until Hostrup erupts, taking to the top of a desk to challenge the group's reflexive anti-Americanism. His direct honesty disarms much of the hostility directed towards him, including Sheila's. The idealistic young Briton and the world-weary American veteran begin to understand one another. Afterward, Hostrup asks to be dropped off at the airfield, where he nostalgically eyes an old AT-6 Texan trainer.
A short while later, the entire reunion group arrives at the airfield for a tour. As the wartime memories flood over the veterans, the sound of a big radial engine rings out from the taxiway. Many of the vets step out from the abandoned Quonset huts to see Carl Hostrup at the controls, standing on the brakes of the straining Texan and lost in his memories. The group rushes forward as Hostrup picks up speed and smoothly lifts the aircraft into the English skies, a look of utter joy on his face. He buzzes Sally's cottage and makes a low pass as she rushes outside, amazed to see him at the controls.
Hostrup then heads for the Greenham Commons air base, where the antiwar demonstration is taking place. He waggles his wings above an overjoyed Sheila before a pair of RAF jets arrives to escort him out of restricted airspace. As Sally arrives at the old airfield, Hostrup executes a perfect landing before being met by police. Sally rushes to him and promises to have a pot of tea waiting when he returns.
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