Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name, 'The Bookshop' is set in 1959. Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), a free-spirited widow, risks everything to open up a bookshop – the first such shop in the sleepy seaside town of Hardborough, England. Fighting damp, cold and considerable local apathy she struggles to establish herself, but soon her fortunes change for the better. By exposing the local townsfolk to the best literature of the day, she opens their eyes.
Her activities bring her a kindred spirit in the figure of Mr Brundish (Bill Nighy) who is himself sick of the town’s stale atmosphere. But this mini social revolution soon brings her fierce enemies, beginning a struggle not just for the bookshop but for the very heart and soul of the town.