Frustrated by living with his wife and two daughters under his parents’ roof and tormented by his war trauma, George decides to change his life and put a bit of beauty back into the world. When visiting the docks he spots an unwanted squirrel monkey and a camel about to be put down, so takes them home with him. He later comes across a rundown stately home surrounded by acres of land, and he formulates the idea of buying it and building around it the first British zoo without bars.