During the summer of 1939, Win Berry , a Harvard student, works at a hotel in Arbuthnot-by-the-Sea. He falls in love with Mary, a girl from the town, and marries her. After the Second World War (1939-1945), the couple returns to Arbuthnot, but the small town is no longer what it was: it has been destroyed during the war. Since Win doesn't want to give up on his dreams, he buys a school and turns it into the hotel of his memories. This is how the first Hotel New Hampshire was born.