This is the heart-warming story of George Bailey, from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure are repeatedly quashed by his strong notions of family obligation and civic duty. It is Christmas Eve, 1945, and George's Guardian Angel, Clarence Odbody, has been sent to save him from despair, and to remind him (by showing him what the world would be like had he never been born) that his has been after all, a wonderful life.