Charles Ryder, an agnostic man, becomes involved with members of the Flytes, a Catholic family of aristocrats, over the course of several years between the two world wars.

Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, Claire Bloom, Phoebe Nicholls, Simon Jones, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Stéphane Audran, Jane Asher, Charles Keating, Jeremy Sinden, Mona Washbourne, Nickolas Grace, Jenny Runacre, Robin Sachs, Michael Bilton, John Grillo, Ralph Nossek, Ronald Fraser, John Nettleton, Kenneth Cranham, Joseph Brady, Gary Waldhorn, John Le Mesurier, Brian Oulton, Andy Rashleigh, Niall Tóibín, Anna Quayle, Bill Owen, Maggie Steed, Paul Clayton, Michael Gough, Stephen Moore, Maria Charles, Stephen Mallatratt, Robert Urquhart, Sally Bazely, Geoffrey Chater, Nicholas Le Prevost, Graham Seed, Simon Chandler, Roger Milner, Richard Hope