Adaptation of the novel by Graham Greene. Jean Louis Chavel, a well-to-do lawyer in Nazi-occupied France, is arbitrarily arrested and sent to prison. Once there, he is randomly selected for execution in retaliation for Resistance activities. Desperate to avoid the firing squad, Chavel offers all his possessions—including a chateau—to any prisoner who'll take his place. One man agrees, a sickly man named Michel, who wills Chavel's estate to his heirs. After the war, Chavel returns to his former home, now inhabited by Michel's mother and embittered sister Therese. Using an alias, Chavel hires on as a gardener and winds up falling for Therese. As their uneasy relationship develops, a mysterious man visits, claiming to be Jean Louis Chavel.

A series of seriocomic vignettes linked to the impact of World War II on a proud family and its town. Set in a southern hamlet between July 1944 and July 1945, the story revolves around the family's patriarch, Jake Tibbetts, the feisty publisher of the local newspaper, Jake's compassionate yet spirited wife, Pastine, their sensitive teenage grandson Lonnie, and Francine Tibbetts, the wife of Jake and Pastine's estranged son, who appears suddenly one hot summer day, unannounced, alone—and very pregnant.

The story of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill Wilson, a good-time Charlie who returns home from World War I with a drinking problem, embarks on a Wall Street career, but jeopardizes his success with binges that become more and more frequent. When the stock market crashes in 1929, Wilson plunges into an alcoholic abyss that sorely tests his marriage and leaves him consumed with guilt and depression. Bill is powerless in his battle with the bottle until a spiritual experience in a detox ward and a friendship struck with a boozing surgeon instill in him new hope and purpose.