In search of a new life, Tom and Mary Crick move from England to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Tom works for twenty years as a high school history teacher. During a class one day in 1974, a student named Matthew Price defiantly challenges Tom’s lesson, demanding he explain the everyday relevance of studying eighteenth-century French history. Flustered, Tom ends the lesson and decides to fill the remaining class time with stories of his youth growing up in the Fens, a marshy region of Eastern England, during World War II. After the death of his mother, Tom lived in a riverside cottage with his father and mentally handicapped brother, Dick, who worked as a dredger. Eliciting giggles from some of the students, Tom recalls his teenage courtship with Mary, and describes their secret trysts onboard an empty train carriage. As the young lovers grew closer, Mary confesses a hesitant curiosity about Tom’s brother Dick, noting his obvious interest in her ever since he saw her skinny-dipping with Tom’s friends. Insisting Dick is harmless, Tom suggests Mary try to befriend him. Soon after, Mary approaches Dick fishing on the riverbank for eels. Reminding him of the day he saw her in her underwear, she coaxes him to swim toward her, and they frolic together in the water. As Tom elaborates on the history of his prewar ancestors, Matthew interrupts, criticizing the teacher’s transparent efforts to relay historical events through his own personal anecdotes. Persistent, Tom continues by explaining that his maternal grandfather, Ernest Atkinson, owned a prestigious brewery in the early twentieth century. On the day of King George V’s coronation, Ernest distributed a batch of extremely potent beer that sent the local population into a drunken rampage. The brewery was detonated in the riot, and only one crate of Ernest’s special brew was salvaged and left to be passed down to his heir. One evening, Tom has dinner with school principal Lewis Scott, who disapproves of Tom’s recent teaching methods and threatens that history classes may soon be merged with the social studies curriculum. Although Tom resumes the normal lesson plan, he quickly derails to his stories, picking up his tale where he left off: Following the war, Ernest descends into madness, and the brewery is converted into a mental institution for World War I veterans. Tom’s mother, Helen, trains to become a nurse, and her sudden reclusiveness during this time sparks several rumors around town. Helen also begins a relationship with a patient named Henry, who later became Tom’s father. Just before her death from influenza, Helen gives Dick the key to Ernest’s trunk containing the last crate of the potent coronation ale. Meanwhile, at age sixteen, Mary becomes pregnant with Tom’s child. Tom immediately denies responsibility, and accuses her of indulging in her fascination with Dick by having sex with him. Although Mary attempted to teach Dick about intercourse, she claims they were unable to perform the act. Hoping to keep Tom’s paternity a secret, Mary tells Dick that their childhood friend, Freddie Parr, is the father. The next morning, Freddie’s body is found floating in the river. Although coroners rule the death as accidental, Mary remains burdened by guilt and considers harming herself in an attempt to abort the fetus. Tom later finds an empty bottle of coronation ale and realizes that Dick was responsible. After confronting his brother and admitting the truth, Dick shows Tom a deathbed letter from their mother, which he cannot read. Tom discerns that Dick is the result of an incestuous relationship between Helen and their grandfather, Ernest. Distraught, Dick guzzles several bottles of the beer and seeks refuge on the dredge boat. Despite the family’s attempts to save him, Dick strips naked, dives into the river, and drowns. Deciding they cannot keep the child, Tom takes Mary to an elderly gypsy woman who agrees to perform an abortion. The procedure destroys Mary’s uterus and leaves her barren. Horrified, Tom flees the woman’s hut and collapses into a sobbing heap in the mud. Upon his return to the hut, the old woman hands him a bucket and instructs him to throw the fetus into the ocean. Once married, Tom and Mary eventually move to Pittsburgh to escape their problems. Troubled by her inability to conceive a child, Mary grows increasingly unstable and one day tells Tom that she has miraculously become pregnant. His concern for her delusion deepens when she shares the news with his colleagues at a dinner party. Embarrassed, he quickly covers the announcement with a lie. One evening, Tom returns home to find Mary tending to a crying baby boy. She presents the child as Tom’s son, claiming that God has forgiven them for past sins. When he questions her, she admits she stole the baby from an inattentive shopper at the local supermarket. Tom drives them back to the store, where they declare that they found the baby outside the high school. Beside herself, Mary bursts into tears, and Tom suggests she seek counseling. They reconcile, but Mary leaves him a week later. When he recounts this story to his students, Tom is forced to resign to avoid scandal. Although Matthew is underage, Tom invites him for a drink. The boy apologizes for encouraging his peers to report him, realizing now that the stories were not just educational lessons for the students, but also a cathartic release for their teacher. The next morning, Tom speaks at a school assembly to announce his “early retirement,” and explains his love of history. Sometime later, he rides a train through the English countryside and imagines his younger self sitting with Mary in an adjacent carriage. He returns to his home in the Fens, where he sees Mary walking alone through the now arid fields, and begins to follow her.