Gentle, humorous Mr. Chipping had been known familiarly to three generations of English schoolboys at Brookfield, as Mr. Chips. As he sat in his pleasant room across from the entrance to the school, Mr. Chips recalled his life there, the jokes he had made which had become classics, and the thousands he had known and regarded as "his boys." And just as gently as he lived, he faded smilingly out of life.

Charles Rainier's family feared him lost along with so many of Britain's youth during the Great War. But two years after he was reported missing in action, he appears in a Liverpool hospital with no memory of the time that has passed. Rainier marries and embarks on a life of relative success, but he still cannot recall his time on the battlefield -- until the first bombs of the Second World War begin to fall. Suddenly, his memories flood back. Now,...

Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure.