At the Coronation party at the Palace Hotel, two lives are about to change forever. It is 1953. Their instant, irresistible attraction to one another will have consequences which stretch far into the future. Claudia - 16, beautiful, fragile and an outsider in this small seaside town - finds herself talking to Michael, also a newcomer, who is struggling with a rocky marriage. Against the ever changing backdrop of events ranging from grey post-war austerity to technicolour rock and roll, from Suez to the summer of love, from Bill Haley to The Beatles, from the buttoned-up glamour of the 50s to the rebellious freedom of the 60s, The Time of Our Lives is an intensely passionate love story and a captivating chronicle of the times.