England, 1959. Free-spirited widow Florence Green follows her lifelong dream by opening a bookshop in a conservative coastal town. While bringing about a cultural awakening through works by Ray Bradbury and Vladimir Nabokov, she earns the polite but ruthless opposition of a local grand dame and the support of a reclusive, book-loving widower. As Florence's obstacles amass, she reminds herself that a town without a bookshop is no town at all.