Arthur Kipps, an orphan, is an over-worked draper’s assistant at Shalford’s Bazaar, Folkestone, at the turn of the last century. He is a charming but ordinary young man who along with his fellow apprentices dreams of a better and more fulfilling world. One of his friends, Sid Pornick, has a strong sense that socialism has a lot to offer the working man seeking fairer access to life opportunities, a theme which is reinforced throughout the story. A chance meeting with Mr Chitterlow, a burgeoning playwright, leads Kipps to find he has unexpectedly inherited a fortune! This propels him into high society and confuses everything he thought he knew about life.

Watching from a distance, as Arthur wrestles with his new identity is his childhood friend (and Sid’s sister), Ann Pornick, who sees with dismay how he is being made over in a new image by the money-grabbing Mrs Walsingham and her son James. Mrs Walsingham’s daughter, Helen is trying to escape the bounds of her conventional upper-class existence, and recognises Arthur’s decency ‘despite’ his working class credentials. She is always there with well-meant helpful hints on how Arthur could improve himself and make his life richer and more meaningful, if only he would believe in himself. Sadly, she becomes implicated in her family’s somewhat less honourable plans when Arthur proposes and she agrees to marry him.

A chance meeting with Anne rekindles happy memories for Kipps of simpler times, and causes him to reflect, somewhat critically, on the life he is now trying to fit into. Both Helen and Anne love Arthur – there is no doubt about that – but which should he listen to? With the help of his friends, Arthur learns that if you want to have the chance of living the right life you need to make the right choices.