Middle-aged insurance salesman George "Tubby" Bowling is dutifully supporting an ungrateful family. As the years roll by, he comes to feel like a hostage to his wife and children—until he wins some money at the races, and in George Orwell's 1939 novel, he sets out for the village where he grew up. Hoping to meet old friends and fish for carp in a pool he remembers from 30 years before, Bowling may find out that you can't go home again.