In 1971,
New Yorker Helene Hanff is on an airplane heading for
London. She is on a
promotional tour for her book
84 Charing Cross Road which is about her 20-year correspondence with a secondhand bookshop specializing in
out-of-print books. By the time Helene arrives in London, the book shop has permanently closed, but she still visits it. To the sound of hammering and a builder's radio, Hanff recalls the first letter she wrote to the shop in 1949. As a
flashback, at a bookstore in 1949 in New York City, Hanff seeks obscure British literary classics. Frustrated after entering yet a fourth book shop without the books she seeks, she buys a copy of the
Saturday Review of Literature. In it, she finds an advertisement placed by antiquarian booksellers
Marks & Co, located at the titular address in London. She contacts the shop, where chief buyer and manager Frank Doel fulfills her requests. Over time, a long-distance friendship develops between Hanff and Doel and also the other staff members; even Doel's wife corresponds with Hanff. In gratitude for their extraordinary service, Hanff begins sending small gifts: holiday packages and food parcels to compensate for post–war
food shortages in Britain as she has learned from a British neighbour a way to send food from Denmark relatively inexpensively. Cecily sneaks off a private letter to Helene, although asks her not to let Frank know, as she senses he might consider it to be improper and that he views her as his private correspondent. She says they all speculate as to what she is like, so requests a photo. In this way, Helene gets some detail as what Frank is like, sweet but married. Helene likewise sends Cecily a private letter. A non college graduate, she lives in and works from a brownstone studio apartment, editing and writing scripts. Correspondence between Helene and Frank includes discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of
John Donne, how to make
Yorkshire pudding, the
Brooklyn Dodgers and the
coronation of Elizabeth II. As time goes on, as they get to know one another, he senses which books that come in would interest her. Helene gets a break, writing scripts for a TV series. At the same time, Frank is travelling around England to old estates for sale, seeking books for their shop. Helene's friend Maxine, who gets a role in a theatre in London, pops into Marks & Co. Although she does not meet any of the people Helene mentioned, she is able to describe it in detail. Later, when the show closes, she gifts nylons to the ladies of the book shop. Hanff intends to visit London and meet her bookseller friends but has to postpone her plans. Firstly, she has to have extensive dental work. Then, Helene and other tenants get evicted, so she is forced to move to another building. In January 1969, she receives word that Doel has died and the bookshop has closed. She finally visits Charing Cross Road and the vacant shop in the summer of 1971. The last scene of the film shows Helene standing in the doorway and saying, "Here I am, Frankie; I finally made it." ==Cast==