The story is that of disillusioned and stale Hollywood scriptwriter Gregory Dawson. A chance encounter in a Cornish hotel sends him back to the Bruddersford (Bradford) of his youth before the First World War. Caught in the past, Dawson relives his time within the magic circle of the Alington family, days on the moors, his work in a wool office and his first tentative steps towards becoming an author. With the energy of a creative act, Dawson allows the years he'd forgotten about to take shape and join hands with the present. Summing up his recollections of the past and the realisation of his present role in a sterile world, he is led towards an entirely new conception of the future. Dawson slowly comes back to life and sees the world with renewed energy and zest.