Small-town guy George Bailey (James Stewart) defers one big dream after another to stay home, marry a local girl (Donna Reed) and run the family business. Facing financial ruin, he's pulled from suicidal despair by angel Clarence (Henry Travers), who shows him how terrible the world would have been if he'd never lived. Lionel Barrymore also stars in director Frank Capra's 1946 classic.