It's December, 1963, when Billy Hopkins and his wife Laura arrive back in Manchester, after five years in Africa. They find the world they left behind has changed beyond recognition, with headlines full of the Beatles and the pill, LSD and mini skirts. Billy is more concerned about his increasingly forgetful father, and the daily challenges of his job as a college lecturer, than about the impact of modern society on his offspring, but when the four junior Hopkins start to choose their own paths in life, Billy finds it harder than usual to see the funny side of things...