"This story of an average English middle-class family begins with the summer of 1939; when the sun shone down on a happy, careless people, who worked and played, reared their children and tended their gardens in that happy, easy-going England that was so soon to be fighting desperately for her way of life and for life itself." - title screens. Mrs. Miniver dramatizes the effect of the Second World War on the English at home. Mrs. Kay Miniver's tranquil domestic existence is torn to shreds by the winds of war. Her husband Clem disappears on a secret volunteer mission, eldest son Vin joins the RAF, and the village faces regular German bombings with a typically British stiff upper-lip. Embodying understated British courage in the face of danger, Mrs. Miniver's mission is to stay alive, and keep her family together with hope, strength, and dignity.